it’s a ghost – The Time

The Catalan police are hunting Carles Puidgemont: despite the arrest warrant, the former president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, returned to the country from Belgium today to prevent the vote to investiture the new socialist government in the Catalan parliament and to pressure the authorities to apply the new amnesty law – which protects Catalan nationalists from legal action – to him too, after the Supreme Court excluded it from its application for technical reasons. He also wants to disrupt the investiture of the socialist Salvador Illa as the new president of Catalonia. Puigdemont had been denounced for rebellion, sedition and embezzlement after Catalonia declared independence from Spain on 27 October 2017 following the referendum held earlier that month and declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court. In application of Article 155 of the Constitution, then Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy placed Catalonia under special administration and dismissed Puigdemont and his entire government. The separatist leader avoided arrest by taking refuge in Belgium – where he has lived for much of the last few years – with four advisers. Operation ‘Cage’ for his capture began with roadblocks at the exit of Barcelona: the agents were looking for the car in which the former president of the Generalitat was traveling, then the operations were extended to the whole of Catalonia, with roadblocks on all the highways.

This morning Puigdemont reappeared in Barcelona in front of his supporters outside the Catalan Parliament, taking the stage in the presence of almost 3,500 people. “Despite all the efforts to harm us, I came here today to remind them that we are still here and that we must not give up,” Puigdemont told the crowd. “Long live free Catalonia!” After finishing his short speech, he stepped off the stage, theoretically to join a march towards Parliament. But he disappeared into the crowd as a group of lawmakers entered the building, which was sealed off and surrounded by police officers.

During the day, the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, arrested two of their agents suspected of being involved in the escape of the former independence leader, who disappeared without a trace on board a car. The owner of the vehicle is said to be one of the two agents arrested, Spanish media reported.