Spain Separatist: Puigdemont "safe and above all free"
While the Spanish police have been searching for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont without success, supporters are causing confusion. Puigdemont had asked him to say that he was "healthy, safe and above all free", wrote Catalan singer-songwriter and leader of the separatist civic movement ANC, Lluís Llach, on the X platform. But no word on where the 61-year-old is and what he is trying to achieve by fleeing again.
09.08.2024, 10:13
SDA
Puigdemont's lawyer Gonzalo Boye seemed to want to make fun of the excitement. He presented his client's return to Barcelona the previous day from almost seven years in exile, his short campaign speech in front of thousands of supporters and his subsequent disappearance under the eyes of the police as a normal working day. "He did his political work and went home after his work was done, as everyone does," he told journalists. He would not reveal where this home was. In any case, Puigdemont would "never turn himself in".
Puigdemont had spent most of his time in exile in Belgium, but most recently also lived in the south of France. Before fleeing in 2017, he lived in Girona.
According to media reports, the Catalan police, who were supposed to arrest Puigdemont, were caught off guard the day before because they had not expected the separatist to go into hiding immediately after his speech. He had announced that he was determined to be in parliament for the election of the socialist pro-Spanish politician Salvador Illa as the new Catalan prime minister. However, after his speech near the parliament, he reportedly got straight into a white car and drove off to an unknown destination. Two police officers were arrested on suspicion of helping him to flee again.
Puigdemont had already fled the country hidden in a car in 2017 after an illegal independence referendum and the subsequent secession of Catalonia from Spain failed.
Although there is now an amnesty for separatists, there is still an arrest warrant out for Puigdemont, who is accused by an investigating judge of having personally enriched himself in 2017. This offense is exempt from the amnesty.
