After nine years of exile: Spain's justice system clears the way for Puigdemont's return

dpa | When the Catalan separatist leader and then head of the regional government of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, fled to Belgium on October 30, 2017, he probably did not expect that it would be nine years before his possible return to the country. After the failed attempt to break the financially strong region of Catalonia in the north-east of the country out of Spain, he had to go into hiding and was smuggled into exile in Belgium by supporters in a cloak-and-dagger operation. Since then there has been an arrest warrant against him, which must now be revoked following a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court today. It would be possible to return as a free man, but the 63-year-old awaits a different country than the one from which he had to flee.

Under Puigdemont's aegis, Catalonia was plunged into chaos after the illegal independence referendum and a subsequent decision to secede from Spain in 2017. The conservative central government at the time placed the region under compulsory administration. While Puigdemont and other members of the government fled abroad, his colleagues who remained in the country were sentenced to prison terms of up to 13 years, but were later pardoned by the government under left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in order to take the steam out of the Catalonia conflict. However, this was not possible with Puigdemont because only those who were convicted can be pardoned.

The Spanish justice system tried for years to get hold of him. She issued a national and later a European arrest warrant. The accusations were initially of rebellion and sedition, which could be punished with long prison sentences. The charge of rebellion was later dropped because the separatists did not incite violence in 2017. The crime of rioting was abolished in 2023. What remained was the accusation of embezzlement of public funds. And it was long-lasting.

In 2024, the Sánchez government passed an amnesty law that was supposed to cover all offenses related to the 2017 independence referendum. The Supreme Court, however, refused to apply the amnesty to Puigdemont and other comrades-in-arms. The judges resorted to a daring argument. The embezzled funds for the illegal referendum would represent a personal financial gain because the politicians would have used state money to finance their own political goals instead of using their own assets for them.

However, since the amnesty law expressly did not cover personal enrichment, the arrest warrant against Puigdemont and other separatists remained in place. The Constitutional Court has now decided that the embezzlement of public funds does not constitute personal enrichment and that there is no longer any reason for bans from holding office or arrest warrants.

Despite the Spanish arrest warrants, Puigdemont repeatedly traveled across Europe for lectures and political meetings. On March 25, 2018, he was even arrested once in Germany while returning from Scandinavia on Autobahn 7 in Schleswig-Holstein. He was imprisoned in Neumünster and only released again after 13 days. Three years later he was temporarily detained in Sardinia. But the responsible judge at the Supreme Court, Pablo Llarena, never got hold of him.

A short visit to Barcelona in 2024 was particularly humiliating for Spain's judiciary and police. The separatist leader unexpectedly appeared in the center of the city. Surrounded by leading politicians from his Junts party, he walked through the streets unmolested and greeted friendly left and right. Then he gave a short, combative speech to a few thousand supporters and disappeared from the scene again. Despite a major manhunt, the police missed him.

The fact that Judge Llarena will now have to revoke the arrest warrant because of personal gain is up to the Constitutional Court. Formally, the proceedings were not about Puigdemont at all. The separatist politician Dolors Bassa had sued against the existing ban on holding office, which the Supreme Court had upheld because of allegations of personal enrichment.

It remains questionable when Judge Llarena will lift the arrest warrant against Puigdemont. The newspaper El País did not rule out that he might wait until a triumphant return of Puigdemont could damage the Sánchez government's election campaign ahead of new elections on November 29th. Parts of the judiciary are highly dissatisfied with the Sánchez government's lenient course towards the separatists. The conservative and right-wing populist opposition would once again try to score points with its voters by criticizing Sánchez for humiliating Spain with the amnesty and endangering the existence of the state.

Puigdemont's return after so many years of absence is unlikely to bring any major changes to Catalan regional policy. His Junts party has been overtaken in polls by the relatively new, staunchly separatist and right-wing populist Alianca Catalana.