Roadblocks were set up on all major roads leading out of the Mediterranean metropolis. Police checked every vehicle trying to leave the city, reported the state broadcaster RTVE. In some cases, trunks were checked and motorcyclists had to take off their helmets.
A white car is being sought, reported the newspaper “El País”, which spoke of surreal scenes. “I can confirm that Puigdemont has not yet been arrested,” said a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry of the region of Catalonia. “I can confirm that roadblocks have been set up to find him.”
Apparently police officer arrested
In the afternoon, a police officer was apparently arrested on suspicion of having helped Puigdemont go into hiding in Barcelona. The officer provided the white car in which the separatist leader is said to have escaped, wrote the newspapers “El País” and “La Vanguardia”, citing police sources. There was initially no official confirmation.
Puigdemont appeared in the center of Barcelona in the morning after almost seven years in exile. Surrounded by leading politicians from his Junts party, he walked unmolested through the streets and saluted left and right. The police, who were on site with strong security forces, did not intervene, although there is an arrest warrant against the 61-year-old. Puigdemont had secretly fled the country in a car after an illegal independence referendum in 2017 and the subsequent failed secession.
Puigdemont then gave a short speech to several thousand supporters in the immediate vicinity of the regional parliament, where the election of socialist Salvador Illa as the new Prime Minister of Catalonia was imminent. “Today I came here to remind you that we are still here because we have no right to give up,” he said, referring to his fight for Catalonia’s independence from Spain.
“We have no interest in living in a country where the amnesty laws do not grant amnesty,” Puigdemont added, referring to the judiciary’s refusal to apply the amnesty granted to separatists to him.
Police wanted to prevent Puigdemont from entering parliament
Meanwhile, the session for the election of Illa began in parliament. Illa would be the first regional head of government in Catalonia in years to support the wealthy region remaining part of Spain. Puigdemont had announced that he wanted to attend the parliamentary session. That was his democratic right as an elected representative. But instead of going to parliament after his speech, he disappeared into the crowd. According to media reports, the police had concentrated on preventing Puigdemont from entering parliament. Even tunnels under the parliament building were checked.
However, Puigdemont was no longer visible on television shortly after the speech and Spanish media were left wondering where he could have gone. The leading members of his party walked calmly and wordlessly through the crowd towards parliament, but Puigdemont had already gone into hiding. The fact that he is threatened with arrest despite an amnesty law for separatists is due to the controversial interpretation of the law by the judiciary.
Amnesty law does not apply to personal enrichment
The amnesty law excludes cases of personal enrichment from exemption from punishment. Although Puigdemont is not accused of having pocketed public money, the investigating judge Pablo Llarena accuses him of personal enrichment. The argument is that he used public funds instead of his own money for his illegal political goals in the 2017 independence referendum, and that this amounts to personal enrichment.
Illa’s party emerged as the strongest force in the early elections in May, but needs the support of the left-wing separatist party ERC, which was achieved through concessions on financial issues and the promotion of the Catalan language. However, if there is no new government by August 25, new elections would have to be held. In his candidacy speech in parliament, he promised to strengthen Catalonia and advocated the full application of the amnesty to separatists.
Is Junts dropping out?
If Puigdemont is arrested, the minority government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will have to fear that the previous majority provider in the Madrid parliament will defect. Puigdemont’s Junts party has so far supported Sanchez’s government in the national parliament in Madrid.
The far-right Vox party immediately made serious accusations against the Catalan authorities. “We had to see how the state allowed this criminal to hold a rally,” Secretary General Ignacio Garriga told reporters outside parliament. “We don’t understand why he hasn’t been arrested yet.”
