Catalonia's former rebel president can return to Spain, court rules

ByGuy Hedgecoe Reporting fromMadrid.

Key points

• The parliamentary backing of Puigdemont's JxCat party was instrumental in allowing current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new left-wing Spanish administration after the 2023 election.
• While he was living in Waterloo, Belgium, nine of his former colleagues were jailed for their role in the events of 2017.
• The court upheld a decision to lift an arrest warrant for him linked to the referendum his regional administration organised in 2017, in defiance of Madrid.
• Puigdemont has remained an active political presence, travelling throughout Europe to espouse the Catalan independence cause and fiercely criticising Spain's democratic institutions.
• But within Catalonia, JxCat has been struggling, with a far-right, pro-independence party, Catalan Alliance, taking plenty of of its voters.

Spain's Supreme Court has ruled the former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, can return without fear of arrest almost a decade after going into self-imposed exile having led a failed independence bid.

Notably, the court upheld a decision to lift an arrest warrant for him linked to the referendum his regional administration organised in 2017, in defiance of Madrid.

Direct rule was imposed on the region shortly after the vote and Puigdemont fled to Belgium, where he has been based ever since – with a surprise appearance in Barcelona in 2024 prompting a police manhunt.

But the Spain to which he may return is much different from a decade ago, with Catalan independence now a marginal political matter.

Monday's ruling brings to an end a lengthy legal wrangle between the Spanish judiciary and the former Catalan president.

In 2024, Spain's socialist administration introduced a controversial amnesty for dozens of Catalan politicians and activists who were involved in the secession drive, but the Supreme Court stated Puigdemont and a number of of his colleagues should be excluded.

It argued this was since of the charges against them of alleged financial crimes around staging the referendum.

As well as his former ministers Lluís Puig and Toni Comín, paving the way for their return to Spain, the Constitutional Court overruled that interpretation earlier this month, and on Monday the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the far-right Vox party against lifting national arrest warrants for Puigdemont. Ex-Catalan leader 'eludes police manhunt and flees Spain'. Catalonia's bid for independence from Spain explained. Spanish PM Sánchez calls early election after housing protests.

Puigdemont was elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019 and to the Catalan parliament in 2024 as leader of the region's centre-right Together for Catalonia (JxCat) party.

He had campaigned in the south of France, where he held rallies attended by supporters who travelled throughout the border to see him.

Puigdemont is known to have created at least one brief return to Spain since leaving the country, addressing a crowd of supporters in Barcelona prior to disappearing and escaping back over the border to France before he could be detained.

While he was living in Waterloo, Belgium, nine of his former colleagues were jailed for their role in the events of 2017. They were published when the Spanish administration pardoned them in 2021.

In a video posted on social media just as the Supreme Court ruling was confirmed, Puigdemont spoke of his reasons for staying abroad.

"My role was to stir public opinion, internationalise the conflict and work from the heart of Europe to explain the reality of Spain, " he remarked. It is still not known when he might return to Spain.

Comín, his former regional minister for health, intends to travel this week to Madrid, where he is due to carry out administrative procedures linked to his status as an MEP.

Meanwhile, the referendum sparked the country's biggest political crisis since democracy was restored after the death of Francisco Franco.

For context, the banned vote was met with a heavy police crackdown. The region's separatist majority declared independence after the vote – Madrid then dissolved parliament, sacked its leaders and called a snap election.

But Catalan independence is now a relatively marginal matter in Spain, with housing and immigration dominating the political agenda.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary backing of Puigdemont's JxCat party was instrumental in allowing current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new left-wing Spanish administration after the 2023 election.

And next month, Spain's general election could see the far right enter administration for the first time.

For now, catalonia' s former rebel president can return to Spain, court rules remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.