Spanish police failed to arrest the wanted former Catalan prime minister Carles Puigdemont during a speech yesterday. According to the secretary of Puigdemont’s party, he is now back in Belgium, where he lives in exile. It was, in effect, the climax of a show that had been going on for years. “It seemed like the icing on the cake, but it all went downhill,” says Sebastian Fabre, a professor of Hispanic studies at Oberlin College in Ohio.
“Pugdemont played a full political role”
Puigdemont was Catalonia's prime minister during a failed independence referendum in 2017, after which he went into self-imposed exile in Belgium for years. Yesterday he returned to Spain for the first time in seven years to give a short speech in Barcelona.
He appeared yesterday morning at the Arc de Triomphe monument near the Catalan parliament. There, surrounded by officials from his hardline separatist party, he took to the stage and addressed thousands of cheering supporters. He managed to avoid the police.
to fail
“Puigdemont played a full-fledged political role,” Fabre concludes. His goal was to become prime minister of the region again or to thwart the appointment of the socialist Salvador Illa. Illa's candidacy was voted on yesterday. Puigdemont achieved neither goal.
“They were really looking to tie his hands up.”
Faber believes that the Spanish Supreme Court also did not have a successful day yesterday. The Spanish Supreme Court is “Puigdemont’s biggest enemy.” The Spanish parliament earlier voted in favor of an amnesty law granting amnesty to Catalan separatists. The law still needs to be approved by the European Commission.
However, the Supreme Court has recently been trying hard to come up with arguments not to grant Puigdemont amnesty. “They were really looking to tie his hands.” And with Puigdemont’s rapid disappearance law, the Supreme Court remains empty-handed.
According to Faber, one person had a successful day: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Sanchez supports a political solution in Catalonia. He believes the judiciary should not interfere in this matter. “He wants to wipe out the traces of the independence movement and he has succeeded,” he added.
Two Catalan police officers Mussos of Squadra They were arrested because they helped Puigdemont yesterday. Not surprisingly, according to Faber. He explains: In Catalonia, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court in Madrid has been under pressure since the strong reaction to the independence referendum.
desire for independence
The desire for independence in Catalonia is now much lower than it was in 2017. “At that time, the independence project seemed ready to be taken over, but in recent years it has turned into a house of cards.” Under the Socialists, politics from Madrid are aimed at reconciliation. And it is working.
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