Exiled Catalan separatist leader confirms return to Spain

If Carles Puigdemont is arrested for his role in Catalonia’s failed independence campaign in 2017, the investiture vote could be cancelled. (AFP Photo)

BARCELONA (Reuters) – Exiled Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont said on Wednesday he was on his way back to Spain, a day before he was due to take part in an investiture vote in the regional parliament despite the threat of arrest.

He is expected to attend the investiture vote in Barcelona to choose a new Catalan leader on Thursday at 10am local time.

An hour before that, his separatist party JxCAT scheduled a welcoming ceremony for Puigdemont outside the Catalan regional parliament in Barcelona.

If Puigdemont is arrested for his role in Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence bid, the investiture vote could be cancelled.

“In normal democratic conditions, it would be useless for a deputy like me to announce his intention to attend this session, it would have no importance,” Puigdemont said in a video published on the social network X.

“But our living conditions are not normal democratic.”

“Firstly because we are facing a long persecution for having allowed the Catalans to vote in the self-determination referendum.”

“And secondly, because the Supreme Court refuses to obey the approved and valid amnesty law,” he added.

“We must respond to this challenge and face it. That is why we have undertaken this journey back from exile.”

Failed Attempt at Independence

Puigdemont was leading the regional government of Catalonia in 2017 when he organized an illegal referendum on secession.

This was followed by a brief declaration of independence before the authorities in Madrid stepped in to shut it down.

Puigdemont fled abroad shortly afterwards to avoid prosecution, but he is still wanted by the Spanish justice system.

Spain’s Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that an amnesty law for Catalan separatists that came into effect earlier this year would not fully apply to him.

“I am convinced that there is no other path to democratic normality than the end of political repression, an end that is envisaged in the letter and spirit of the amnesty law,” Puigdemont added in the video, as he stood in front of a Catalan flag and a European Union flag.

“We cannot remain silent in the face of the rebellious attitude that some judges of the Supreme Court have engaged in,” he added.

The leader of Catalonia’s ruling Socialist Party, former health minister Salvador Illa, is expected to be elected the region’s new leader in Thursday’s investiture vote.

He won the support of a small far-left party and the more moderate left-wing Catalan separatist party, ERC.