Carles Puigdemont
Seven reasons for the charismatic Catalan leader to visit Barcelona
Several key points emerge from all of this. Despite seven years in exile, Carles Puigdemont remains a fairly popular figure in Catalonia. His party, Together for Catalonia, didn’t exactly hide the fact of his imminent return. Somehow dozens, if not hundreds, of people gathered at the Arc de Triomf square, and the police couldn’t have been unaware of this. Three hundred policemen, not to mention the border guards, were supposed to arrest him, but instead the former leader even left in a policeman’s personal car. When asked by the Attorney General, the others replied that they were «waiting for the right moment to arrest him so as not to provoke unrest».
Yes, his party, let’s say, did not win the elections, but it still left itself the possibility to negotiate, which means to influence decisions in one way or another. A pact was made with the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez. They are revising the amnesty law for the participants of the 2017 uprising, and in return, Together, which has seven deputies, will support, or at least not block, the government’s most important decisions. In other words, in one way or another, Sánchez needs them to keep his coalition from falling apart, which is already barely held together by, as they say, duct tape and matches.
But this amnesty does not apply to Puigdemont himself. On May 30, the Spanish parliament proposed this controversial amnesty law, which was approved on June 11. Its purpose is to cancel arrest warrants for opposition members who have left the country. But they will remain in force until the investigation is completed, which could take months, if not longer.
The first goal of Puigdemont’s appearance was to try to destabilize the meeting of the Catalan parliament, the Generalitat, which was supposed to approve Salvador Illa’s candidacy for president that day. In principle, Puigdemont is a deputy, which means he has the right to be present and vote.
The plan was as follows. The maximum program was to disrupt the session and the vote. If they were successful and no candidate was elected president by August 26, new elections would be called in Catalonia.
The hypothetical arrest of Puigdemont could at least delay the vote on Illa’s candidacy. The secretary general of the «Together for Catalonia» party, Jordi Turull, should call for the session to be suspended in this case.
According to unconfirmed reports on Catalan radio, Puigdemont struck a deal with the police, allowing him to speak in the square in exchange for surrendering to justice. Spanish television endlessly aired an episode in which Puigdemont’s lawyer gestured behind a white screen on an improvised stage — creating a kind of Chinese shadow theater — and could be seen saying «vamonos» («let’s go»), after which there was confusion and the fugitive did not go to parliament or surrender.
In the end, the cunning plan failed, and Salvador Illa became the first president of the Generalitat since 2010 not to represent a separatist party. For the first time in more than a decade, pro-independence forces lost power in Catalonia.
The second goal of Puigdemont’s return was to draw attention to himself and to emphasize that he still hopes for the revival of the independence movement. It is clear that after his exile, his flight to Belgium and the arrest of his associates, the movement is weakening. The question of Catalan independence remains unresolved.
«I don’t know how much time will pass or when we will be able to meet again, and it doesn’t matter what happens next, but when we return, I hope we can once again shout loudly: ‘Long live free Catalonia!’ — that’s what I always say in my speeches», the rebel leader declared.
The third reason and goal was to legitimize his position and his right to return. In any case, to try to assert his official rights as the leader of Catalonia. He has always maintained that his persecution is illegal. The situation in which Puigdemont finds himself is considered by him and his supporters to be a «democratic anomaly» and the authorities are criminalizing the right to self-determination by not allowing a deputy to attend a session of the Generalitat.
Another part of the plan was to fight for the cancellation of the arrest warrants issued by the Spanish authorities. In any case, it was worth a try.
The idea was this: He appears in Catalonia, it is covered by the global media, he gets a chance to state his position, present legal arguments, and ultimately hope for international support.
The fifth goal was to support those who still considered themselves his followers. In other words, to boost the morale of his followers. Look, brothers, I’ve been in exile for seven years, I’m not giving up, and you should hold on.
Sixth, his return could be a signal to Madrid about the possibility of starting new negotiations. I came, I risked my freedom, my people — seven of them — support your coalition, so what are we waiting for, let’s negotiate. This is unlikely, of course, because the coalition as it is has been formed, his party lost the elections in Catalonia, and in power is Salvador Illa, a socialist, an ally of Sánchez, and a former health minister who led the country through the pandemic and is therefore a very popular politician. So far, there seems to be no serious basis for negotiations.
Finally, the seventh idea was to show other Catalan personalities that Puigdemont isn’t giving up and that it’s too early to remove his number from their contact lists. He could very well return and immediately jump into regional politics.
And perhaps not just regional politics.