Self-exiled Catalan leader Puigdemont delays return to Spain

The long legal drama surrounding Carles Puigdemont, who charted his region's failed attempt to break away from Spain, has come to an end after his arrest warrant was canceled.(CN) — Despite a court ruling allowing him to return to Spain, former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was reportedly waiting for assurances Wednesday that he does not face any risk of arrest at home after nearly nine years of self-imposed exile in Belgium.A possible homecoming by Puigdemont, who led an illegal secession attempt, adds a twist to Spain’s looming elections.On Tuesday, a Spanish Supreme Court judge overseeing an embezzlement case canceled an arrest warrant for Puigdemont shortly after the Constitutional Court found he was covered by a 2024 amnesty law passed by center-left Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.Tuesday’s ruling came a day after Sánchez announced early elections for Nov. 29 amid mass protests in Madrid and other cities over skyrocketing housing costs. The protests were sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old Madrid woman from a home she had lived in since the 1950s.Puigdemont’s center-right Catalan separatist party, the Junts, joined other conservative parties last Friday in defeating Sánchez’s attempt to freeze rents and evictions.On Tuesday, Sánchez nonetheless sought to pass a series of emergency housing measures, including restrictions on evictions and real estate speculation, by getting them passed by an interim legislature.After the Junts voted against the housing measures, an alliance of convenience between Sánchez and the Catalan separatists effectively ended.That alliance dated back to inconclusive elections in 2023. Sánchez was able to remain in office by agreeing to pass amnesty for the separatists; in return he won the Junts’ support. The arrangement allowed Sánchez to form a minority government with allies on the left.Just what effect Puigdemont’s return could have on the campaign is unclear; it might be negligible because Catalan independence has receded as a major issue.“Spain and Catalonia have moved on,” said Duncan Wheeler, an expert on Spanish politics at the University of Leeds. “Even steadfast Catalan nationalists don’t think that independence is a realistic prospect, at least in the short- to mid-term future.”Still, Puigdemont’s reappearance would become election fodder.Right-wing opposition parties have railed against the amnesty law, equating it to treason. They also have portrayed Sánchez as a cynical operator who colluded with separatists.“Nothing can erase the fact that the amnesty is yet another deception by Sánchez,” the conservative opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said on social media Tuesday.Puigdemont’s re-emergence, then, could remind voters of Sánchez’s leniency toward the separatists.“It’s going to feed into the idea that he’s been propped up by nationalists,” Wheeler said, speaking by telephone. “That he’s gone soft on them in exchange for their support.”Conversely, Sánchez could argue his eight years in government calmed tensions with Catalan separatists. Prior to the amnesty law, Sánchez pardoned Catalan leaders convicted for their actions during the referendum.“Sánchez has effectively neutered the Catalan issue by being a bit more reasonable,” Wheeler said. “The pro-independence movement thrived off the intransigence of the right.”Sánchez’s Socialist party, which governs Catalonia, welcomed the Constitutional Court ruling.“Time has proved us right; Catalonia is moving forward,” Salvador Illa, the Catalan president, said on social media Tuesday.Puigdemont was the face of Catalonia’s controversial and illegal drive to break away from Spain in 2017.As the region’s president, he pushed to hold an independence referendum even though Spain’s high courts declared it unlawful. Those events led to the nation’s biggest constitutional crisis in decades.On Oct. 1, 2017, the referendum went ahead, leading to violent clashes when police raided polling stations, attacked voters and arrested scores of people.In the ensuing chaos, Puigdemont, fearing arrest, fled to Belgium, where he has remained, declaring himself a political exile. Catalan leaders who stayed in Spain were arrested and imprisoned.In exile, Puigdemont was elected to the European Parliament and to the Catalan Parliament, thereby remaining a political force.In a statement, Puigdemont said the decision to lift the arrest warrant signaled the end of “political repression we have suffered for more than nine years because we voted for the independence of our country.”He accused Spanish judges of interfering “in a conflict that belonged and belongs to politics.”“Amnesty forms part of the formula for resolving the historic conflict that exists between Catalonia and Spain, but amnesty in itself is not its solution,” he said.Puigdemont and other were charged with embezzlement because they used public money to hold the independence referendum.After he fled, Spain issued an arrest warrant for Puigdemont, leading to a long-running legal battle as he fought extradition in Belgian, German and European Union courts.In 2018 and 2021, he was arrested while traveling but was quickly released.In August 2024, he made a surprise appearance in Barcelona, giving an impassioned speech for independence before fleeing, possibly helped by Catalan police.Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads