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Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont entered Spain on Thursday, where he has been wanted by the courts for seven years, fleeing among the crowds.
“They have been persecuting us for seven years because we wanted to listen to the Catalan people,” he exclaimed at a rally near the Catalan parliament, minutes before the new government president, Salvador Illa, was sworn in.
After a few brief words and cheers from those present, he fled in a car as Catalan police launched Operation Cage to capture Puigdemont.
Spanish media reported that a policeman who allegedly helped the former Catalan president escape from prison was arrested, while a firefighter and Jordi Turul, secretary general of the Catalan League party, also took part in the breakout.
Puigdemont led the so-called 2017 “process,” as he is known, pushing for an independence attempt from his Unity party, which endangered the unity of the Spanish government led by Mariano Rajoy.
Seven years ago, after Spain’s Supreme Court declared an independence referendum unconstitutional, Rajoy’s government sacked Puigdemont and ordered his arrest, so he fled to Brussels, Belgium, while several of his fellow party members ended up in prison in Spain.
Spanish judges sought his extradition, but without success, despite his arrest in Germany in 2018 and in Italy in 2021. Therefore, his status as a member of the European Parliament since 2019 has an impact on his release.
The possibility of Puigdemont’s return arose with the approval of an amnesty law pushed by the current Spanish Socialist government led by Pedro Sánchez, and several now-free pro-independence leaders took advantage of the opportunity.
But Puigdemont faces corruption charges for allegedly embezzling public funds for the independence cause, and Spanish judicial authorities are investigating whether he received support from Russia in his separatist campaign.
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