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Europe|Defying Spanish Arrest Warrant, Carles Puigdemont Returns to Catalonia
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/world/europe/carles-puigdemont-catalonia-spain.html
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Large crowds greeted the former regional leader who has lived in self-imposed exile since a failed 2017 independence bid. Despite a new amnesty law, he could still face arrest.
Aug. 8, 2024, 3:14 a.m. ET
Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s separatist leader-in-exile, returned to Barcelona on Thursday after seven years, defying an arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities, and potentially facing arrest.
Mr. Puigdemont’s return is a turning point in the political journey of a man who has presided over one of Spain’s most fraught political issues — the independence bid of the prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia.
Wrapped in red and yellow Catalan flags, pro-independence supporters gathered by Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf, a towering brick memorial arch, to welcome him, chanting “Puigdemont is our president,” and hoping his comeback would energize a movement whose popularity has been dwindling.
“We have been persecuted for seven years for wanting to hear the voice of the people of Catalonia” Mr. Puigdemont said from a stage below the arch as people waved his photos, banners and tote bags bearing his name.
In 2017, Mr. Puigdemont drove the independence referendum that provoked Spain’s most severe constitutional crisis in decades. His hard-line separatist party, Together for Catalonia, played the kingmaker in last year’s Spanish election, obtaining in return an amnesty law for alleged crimes linked to the 2017 failed bid for independence. The law, which passed earlier this year, partly paved the way for Mr. Puigdemont’s return.
It is still unclear whether Mr. Puigdemont will be detained and whether the amnesty law, which would potentially affect many separatists, will apply to him. From the start, judges have criticized the amnesty law, saying that it infringes on the separation of powers.
