Catalan police have launched an operation to find and arrest Carles Puigdemont and set up roadblocks on routes to the French border after the fugitive former regional president returned to Spain for the first time in seven years to address a crowd of a few thousand in Barcelona before promptly disappearing.
Two officers in the Catalan regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, were arrested on Thursday in connection with Puigdemont’s escape, raising serious questions about the policing operation as the search brought Barcelona and the surrounding area to a standstill. One of those arrested is alleged to be the owner of the car in which the former Catalan president fled.
A dramatic day that began with Puigdemont’s reappearance and escape ended with pro-independence parties losing their grip on power for the first time in more than a decade. Early on Thursday evening, MPs in the regional parliament elected the pro-union, Catalan Socialist party candidate, Salvador Illa – a close ally of Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez – the new regional president by a margin of 68 votes to 66.
The day’s events could also have political ramifications as the leader of Puigdemont’s party, Jordi Turull, is expected to be summoned by police as a witness in the case.
Sánchez depends on the support of Junts per Catalunya’s seven MPs in the Spanish parliament, leaving the separatist party with the power to torpedo key legislation.
A Mossos spokesperson said the force was looking into “any potential offences” committed in relation to the former president’s escape.
Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium after fleeing Spain to avoid arrest for masterminding an illegal independence referendum in Catalonia in 2017, had declared earlier this week he would be at the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Thursday as it swore in the region’s new leader.
Speaking on a stage at the Arc de Triomf, symbolically close to the law courts and the Catalan parliament, he told the crowd of mainly older supporters: “I’ve come here today to remind you that we’re still here. We don’t have the right to give in, the right to self-determination belongs to the people. Catalonia must be allowed to decide its future.
“I don’t know when I’ll see you again but, whatever happens, when we see each other again we can once again shout out ‘Long Live Free Catalonia!’”
Puigdemont was then whisked away, surrounded by members of his Together for Catalonia party, apparently in the direction of the parliament building. However, when the group arrived at parliament, he was not among them.
Details emerged of how Puigdemont managed to get to the stage, and then escape, despite the presence of about 300 uniformed and plainclothes police officers. A crowd of a couple of dozen people was used to shield him from view as he walked from the narrow Passatge de Sant Benet to the Arc de Triomf; once his speech was over, the crowd again shielded him as he reached a hidden screen and entered a waiting car.
Unconfirmed reports on Catalan radio said Puigdemont had made a pact with the police that if officers allowed him to speak at the Arc de Triomf, he would then surrender to them.
Meanwhile, an hour after the ex-president’s dramatic appearance and escape, Illa’s investiture began. His Catalan Socialist party won the most seats in May’s regional election but failed to gain an overall majority.
Pro-independence parties have previously been able to put together an alliance to keep the socialists from power but lacked the support this time. Their options were to accept a socialist-led government, led by Illa, or go to the polls again, an option that was in no one’s interest.
Puigdemont’s party, which came second in the election, refused to support Illa’s candidacy but he won the support of the rival separatist Catalan Republican Left party in exchange for offering Catalonia greater fiscal autonomy.
Speaking after he was elected Catalan president, Illa – a former health minister in the national government who had campaigned on a promise to reunite the region and improve its public services – said he would work for all Catalans.
“I will govern for everyone, keeping in mind the plurality of Catalonia,” he said. “I will be at the service of all of you, trying to make things as good as possible.” He added: “We’re at a moment of historic change that requires all that each of us can bring.”
Puigdemont fled to Belgium in October 2017 in the boot of a car to evade arrest for his part in the failed and illegal declaration of Catalan independence. Nine members of his government received jail sentences of up to 13 years for their part in the independence push and all were pardoned three years later in 2021.
A divisive amnesty law for those involved in the symbolic independence referendum in November 2014 and the illegal unilateral poll that followed three years later was passed by the Spanish parliament in May as Sánchez struck a deal with Catalan separatist MPs to help him return to power. However, Spain’s supreme court upheld arrest warrants for Puigdemont and others who were charged with misuse of public funds, ruling that the amnesty law did not apply to them. Puigdemont says the vote was not illegal and that the charges linked to it therefore have no basis.
The Spanish government has not commented on Puigdemont’s reappearance and vanishing act, but the conservative People’s party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said Thursday’s events were “an unbearable humiliation”.
“It’s painful to watch this madness live – a madness for which Pedro Sánchez is chiefly responsible. Damaging Spain’s image like this is unforgivable,” he said.
The far-right Vox party’s Santiago Abascal described the events as “the destruction of the state beamed live on Spanish television”.
