#catalan pol

Languages: Français | Deutsch

Former Catalan president and separatist leader Carles Puigdemont staged a scene worthy of one of the best performances by Hungarian-American escape artist Harry Houdini, after giving a speech in Barcelona on Thursday (8 Aug), where he was actively sought by Spanish police, slipped away again. Minutes before the inauguration ceremony of the new Catalan president, Socialist Salvador Illa (PSC/PSOE), Puigdemont, leader of the right-wing separatist Together for Catalonia (JxCat) party, managed to deliver a brief speech to around 3,500 supporters, at the symbolic site for separatists in the Catalan capital, the Arc de Triomf (triumphal arch). No one can explain how he managed to get there without being spotted or apprehended by the Catalan regional police (Mossos d’ Esquadra), unless there was a “tacit pact” to let him speak, as has been speculated in the Spanish media. “I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. But when we see each other again, we can shout together the cry with which I will now end: Long live free Catalonia,” Puigdemont stated. After his speech, he was last seen heading through the crowd toward the regional parliament building, but has since “disappeared”. Meanwhile, Catalan police on Thursday arrested an officer accused of helping Puigdemont to flee in a car, after he addressed the JxCat rally, Euractiv´s partner EFE reported. The Mossos d’Esquadra has now launched Operation ‘Jaula’ (Spanish for cage) to track down the separatist former leader, with roadblocks set up around the city. Embarrassingly for the Spanish authorities, the separatist leader was able to walk around Barcelona’s city center freely like a tourist, despite being under a national arrest warrant. 

continue reading

This article was originally published in Spanish

The separatist former president of Catalonia returned to his home country in a bid to prevent the Catalan parliament from voting in a new socialist government in what he described as "the only way to return to normality". Former Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain after organising an illegal independence referendum in the wealthy Spanish region nearly seven years ago, returned to the country on Thursday despite a pending arrest warrant. Puigdemont defiantly appeared in Barcelona after travelling from Belgium and faces charges of embezzlement for his part in the attempt to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain. Long lines of people thronged the Passeig Lluis Companys in Barcelona with Catalan flags at the event ahead of the parliament session Puigdemont plans to attend. He punched the air to cheers on a bright, sunny day. Tens of thousands of Puigdemont's supporters have gathered, some seen readying V for Vendetta-style Puigdemont masks to be worn during the event. The rally was organised by his political party Together for Catalonia (Junts), hours before a new regional government was to take office nearby. Earlier this week, the separatist leader announced that he would return to Spain and that he intended to attend the plenary session of the Catalan Parliament and prevent the vote on the new government led by socialist Salvador Illa. "In normal democratic conditions, for a deputy like me to announce his intention to attend the session would be unnecessary and irrelevant, but ours are not normal democratic conditions," said the secessionist leader on the lam since the 2017 referendum.