Fugitive Catalan separatist returns to Spain for event, disappears again

Former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont defied an arrest warrant to attend a rally in the Spanish city of Barcelona on Thursday (8) after seven years of self-imposed exile, and then disappeared before police could arrest him.

Amid a heavy police presence, Puigdemont spoke to a crowd of thousands of supporters in the Catalan capital from a lectern near the Catalan parliament before disappearing backstage.

He told the crowd he intended to revive the independence drive that plunged Spain into political crisis seven years ago.

“Today, many thought they would be celebrating my arrest and thought this punishment would deter us – and you,” he said.

“Today I came to remind you that we are still here! We are still here because we do not have the right to give up.”

Senior officials from his Junts party, including parliament speaker Josep Rull, and members of the moderate separatist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, which currently runs the regional government, led a march to the Catalan parliament after the rally, as journalists tried to identify whether Puigdemont was among them.

The debate to install socialist Salvador Illa as Catalonia’s new president, ending a decade of separatist rule, began amid confusion and speculation about Puigdemont’s whereabouts and how he could have disappeared in plain sight.

“We had to see how the state allowed this criminal to hold a rally,” Ignacio Garriga, secretary general of the far-right Vox party, told reporters outside the Catalan parliament. “We don’t understand why he hasn’t been arrested yet.”

A spokeswoman for the Catalan Interior Ministry confirmed that Puigdemont had evaded capture. “I can confirm that Puigdemont has not yet been detained,” she said. “I can confirm that roadblocks have been set up to find him.”

Puigdemont, 61, fled to Belgium seven years ago after a failed secession attempt and has lived in exile ever since. He is now likely to be detained on an outstanding arrest warrant for alleged embezzlement, which he denies.

Source: CNN Brasil

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