BARCELONA, Spain — Police launched a manhunt in Barcelona on Thursday for ex-Catalonia chief and fugitive Carles Puigdemont, a celebrated campaigner for Catalan independence who made a sensational return to Spain and an equally sensational getaway from a speech within the metropolis with the alleged assist of a neighborhood police officer.
The occasions passed off almost seven years after Puigdemont fled Spain after a failed independence bid, with an impressive arrest warrant pending in opposition to him.
Puigdemont had beforehand introduced his intention to be in Spain on a day that Catalonia’s parliament is because of swear in a brand new president. The 61-year-old initially lived in Belgium after bolting from Spain in 2017, however his newest place of residence wasn’t recognized.
Puigdemont stored his journey plans secret earlier than getting down to the rich Catalan area in northeastern Spain. He gave a speech in entrance of a giant crowd of supporters in central Barcelona underneath the noses of law enforcement officials, who made no try to detain him.
After his speech, in a cloak-and-dagger second, Puigdemont went into an adjoining marquee tent. There, he hurried out of an exit and jumped right into a ready automotive that sped away, based on an Related Press photographer who witnessed his departure.
Catalan police arrested considered one of their very own officers on expenses of aiding Puigdemont’s getaway, the pressure’s press workplace advised The Related Press. No additional particulars have been accessible.
About three hours after Puigdemont vanished, Catalan police known as off the manhunt with out saying why.
The Catalan police pressure is named Mossos d’Esquadra and operates individually from Spain’s Policia Nacional. On the time of the 2017 poll, the Spanish authorities suspended the Mossos’ chief and positioned the pressure underneath investigation for failing to cease the vote. The chief and his workers have been finally exonerated.
Authorities, who could have wished to keep away from confrontation with the group of a number of thousand separatist supporters, had arrange a police cordon on the close by regional parliament the place Puigdemont was anticipated to go afterward.
As soon as Puigdemont had slipped away, roadside police items checked automobiles throughout town of round 1.6 million individuals in an effort to nab him. The checks snarled metropolis visitors. Police additionally checked automobiles heading on highways to neighboring France.
Puigdemont faces expenses of embezzlement for his half in an try to interrupt Catalonia away from the remainder of Spain in 2017. As regional president and separatist get together chief on the time, he was a key participant in an independence referendum that was outlawed by the central authorities however went forward anyway.
These occasions triggered a political disaster that roiled Spain for months.
Puigdemont’s look in Barcelona, Catalonia’s capital, and his recreation of cat-and-mouse with police, stole the present on a day when a brand new authorities was being sworn in on the regional parliament.
Native police have been deployed in a safety ring round a bit of the park the place Catalonia’s parliament constructing is positioned behind partitions. In the meantime, Puigdemont, carrying a darkish swimsuit, white shirt and tie, walked with supporters to the close by stage the place he gave his speech.
Addressing the group within the park and at occasions pumping his fist, Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities of “a crackdown” on the Catalan separatist motion.
“For the final seven years now we have been persecuted as a result of we wished to listen to the voice of the Catalan individuals,” Puigdemont stated. “They’ve made being Catalan into one thing suspicious.”
He added: “All individuals have the best to self-determination.”
The gripping flip of occasions, broadcast reside on Spanish tv channels, was more likely to carry political recriminations.
The chief of the Well-liked Social gathering, the primary opposition to Spain’s left-of-center coalition authorities which has lengthy rebuffed Catalonia’s independence motion, condemned Puigdemont’s return. Alberto Núñez Feijóo posted on X that Puigdemont’s reappearance was an “insufferable humiliation” that broken Spain’s repute.
Spain’s authorities inspired a deal brokered after months of impasse between Salvador Illa’s Catalan Socialist Social gathering (PSC) and the opposite principal Catalan separatist get together and left-wing Esquerra Republicana (ERC). That deal had ensured simply sufficient assist in Catalonia’s parliament for Illa to turn into the following regional president Thursday.
Talking to Catalan lawmakers earlier than the vote, Illa known as for reconciliation and respect for Spain’s controversial amnesty invoice. He vowed to control for all Catalans after years of bitter divisions between these in favor of independence and people in opposition to it.
Puigdemont has devoted his profession to the aim of carving out a brand new nation in northeast Spain — a battle which is decades-old. His largely uncompromising strategy has introduced political battle with different separatist events in addition to with Spain’s central authorities.
A contentious amnesty invoice, crafted by Spain’s Socialist-led coalition authorities, might probably clear Puigdemont and a whole bunch of different supporters of Catalan independence of any wrongdoing within the 2017 poll. Spain’s central authorities and the Constitutional Court docket declared on the time that the referendum was unlawful.
However the invoice, authorized by Spain’s parliament earlier this yr, is being challenged by the Supreme Court docket, which argues the pardon would not apply to embezzlement, in contrast to different crimes that Puigdemont had beforehand been charged with.
Puigdemont might be positioned in pretrial detention if he’s arrested.
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Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
