Catalan separatist Puigdemont back in limelight with impending arrest

By Joan Faus and David Latona

BARCELONA/MADRID (Reuters) - Seven years after leading Catalonia's failed bid to secede from Spain, Carles Puigdemont is set to return from self-imposed exile despite facing a likely arrest that could trigger yet another crisis between the region and Madrid.

Although the Spanish parliament passed a contentious amnesty bill in May pardoning those involved in the 2017 secession attempt, the Supreme Court has upheld warrants for the arrest of Puigdemont and two others charged with embezzlement.

Puigdemont, 61, a cult figure for supporters who is recognisable for his Beatles-style haircut, intends to attend Thursday's plenary session of the Catalan parliament.

Lawmakers are set to confirm Salvador Illa, an ally of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, as head of government of the wealthy northeastern region.

It remains unclear how the former Catalan leader plans to return to the country and enter parliament while evading police.

When campaigning for the Catalan election on May 12, Puigdemont pledged that he would attend in person the parliamentary session in Barcelona to elect a new regional leader, regardless whether that would be him or not.

His return, analysts say, could also be triggered by a political calculation that his exile has lost significance with the amnesty law and that he can be more influential within Spain, while gambling that if arrested he may be able to win a release appeal thanks to the amnesty law.

His arrest and potential imprisonment before facing trial could unleash fresh turmoil in Catalonia and compromise the fragile Socialist-led coalition ruling Spain, which relies on Puigdemont's party to pass legislation.

UNCONVENTIONAL RISE TO POWER

The bespectacled former journalist, known for his passion for music and literature and a penchant for cryptic social media posts with obscure literary references, entered big politics almost by accident.

Puigdemont was mayor of the separatist stronghold of Girona, a city of about 100,000, when the regional parliament appointed him head of the Catalan government in 2016, a year before he would spearhead the independence bid that triggered Spain's biggest political crisis in decades.

He had not run for the post, but was hand-picked by his elected predecessor, Artur Mas, who had to step down to avoid a new election.

A year and a half later, following an October 2017 independence referendum deemed illegal by the judiciary, the same parliament declared Catalonia's independence.

While many rejoiced, Puigdemont looked stern, knowing that Madrid would take direct control over the region shortly after.

Sacked by Spain's then-premier Mariano Rajoy for his role in organising the referendum, Puigdemont fled to Belgium by car two days after the proclamation, while some of his former government colleagues remained in Spain and were jailed shortly afterwards.

He still faces a charge of misuse of public funds for the referendum purposes. Puigdemont insists the referendum was not illegal and so the charges linked to it have no basis.

In Brussels, he founded Junts, a hardline pro-independence spin-off of his more pragmatic CiU party, to run for the Catalan presidency in the first election following the referendum with the hope of governing remotely. He did not achieve that goal, but in 2019 he was elected as a member of the European Parliament.

'NO SURRENDER'

His travels outside Belgium led to him being arrested in Germany and Italy, but he still managed to avoid extradition or lengthy detention.

Last spring, he said he was relocating to southern France to run in the Catalan election.

In July 2023, however, the European Union's General Court stripped him of the legal immunity he had as a parliamentarian.

His supporters built an image of him as a staunch fighter against Spain's judiciary, under the motto of "No surrender", while he insisted he was hoping to return to Catalonia but was not seeking an individual pardon.

He ran in May's regional election, campaigning from France and hoping for an epic return, but finished second behind the Socialist candidate Salvador Illa as Catalan nationalists lost their parliamentary majority for the first time in four decades.

In a video message on Wednesday, Puigdemont said his potential arrest would be illegal and arbitrary.

He had earlier described Spain's efforts to detain him as a "hybrid coup", adding: "If they succeed, I imagine what awaits me and know what I must do."

(Reporting by David Latona and Joan Faus; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Andrew Cawthorne)