POLICE are searching sewers and sealing off doors to Barcelona Zoo in a bid to prevent ex-Catalan president Carles Puigdemont returning to the region’s parliament.
On Wednesday, Puigdemont said he intended to return to Spain after seven years despite facing almost certain arrest over his role in the 2017 independence referendum.
Puigdemont said he was committed to being present when the Catalan parliament swear in a new leader on Thursday following elections in May, where Puigdemont's party Together for Catalonia finished second behind the Socialists' Party of Catalonia.
“The Parliament of Catalonia has summoned all its members to the investiture debate of the next president of the Generalitat that will begin tomorrow,” he said in a video posted to social media on Wednesday.
“In normal democratic conditions, for an MP like me to announce his intention to attend that session would be unnecessary, it would be irrelevant.
El Parlament de Catalunya ha convocat a tots els diputats al debat d’investidura del pròxim president de la Generalitat. Jo hi he de ser i hi vull ser. Per això he emprès el viatge de retorn des de l’exili. pic.twitter.com/jcO5MA8czX
— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) August 7, 2024
“But ours are not normal democratic conditions. There are two members, former regional minister Lluis Puig and myself, who cannot attend freely.
“First because we are facing a long persecution for having allowed Catalans to vote in the self-determination referendum.
“And secondly, because the Supreme Court refuses to obey the amnesty law approved and in force, and which they have to apply.
“This challenge must be answered and confronted. That is why we have taken our return journey from exile.
“I am convinced that there is no other path to democratic normality than the end of political repression”
Yet the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s autonomous police force, have been tasked with ensuring that neither Puigdemont or Puig are in attendance during the swearing in of a new president.
Police are carrying out room by room searches of the Palace of the Catalan Parliament, which is located within the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona.
Only one entrance to the park will be open on Thursday, with only MPs and their staff permitted to enter.
The basement of the building is being searched as well as the sewers.
A door linking the parliament building to Barcelona Zoo, which surrounds the Palace of the Catalan Parliament on three sides, has also been sealed.
“These are standard security procedures that are carried out before any investiture ceremony,” a spokesperson for the Mossos d’Esquadra told POLITICO.
“Our duty is to enforce the law”.
An amnesty law forcing judges to withdraw legal action being brought against Catalan separatists was passed by the Spanish parliament in May.
However, Spain’s Supreme Court has refused to apply the law to Puigdemont, meaning a warrant for his arrest remains in effect.
