The former ‘president’ of the Generalitat returns to Spain as, in his own words, “the only way to return to normality” and participates in a welcome event. The Junts leader arrived surrounded by people and gave a speech.
Carles Puigdemont has arrived in Spain seven years after his escape to Belgium. This Thursday morning, the former president arrived in Barcelona arm in arm with Josep Rull, current president of the Parliament, and among a large crowd of supporters and journalists.
After giving a speech on the Paseo Lluís Companys, the founder of Junts, who fled Spain on October 30, 2017 after the failed declaration of independence of Catalonia, is currently on his way to the Generalitat, where the Mossos d’Escuadra They have shielded the Parliament awaiting your arrival.
Puigdemont announced this week that he would return to Spain and that he intended to attend investiture plenary session of the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa.
“In conditions of democratic normality, for a deputy like me to announce his intention to attend the session would be unnecessary and irrelevantbut ours are not conditions of democratic normality,” stated the secessionist leader fled from justiceafter the illegal 1-O referendum.
weighs on him a arrest warrant for a crime of embezzlement of public funds and high treason. The first of which would not be part of the amnesty decreed by the Supreme Court for the participants of the Catalan ‘procés’, according to Judge Llarena.
The pro-independence politician has been on the run from Spanish Justice for almost seven years, since October 2017. Years in which he has been residing in Waterloo and has remained as MEP in the European Parliament.
Multitudes of followers have received him in Catalonia
A crowd of people has crowded the Passeig Lluis Companys in Barcelona Catalan flags at the event prior to the Parliament, where Carles Puigdemont is expected to appear.
Tens of thousands of people have gathered and are expected to use Puigdemont masks in the purest style of the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ during this event that takes place at 9:00, Spanish time.
The return and arrest as a martyr of the ‘procès’
The future of Carles Pujgdemont It will depend on Judge Llarena who maintains the active arrest warrant. ‘Euronews’ has spoken with members of the National Police Corps to clarify whether the former president of the Catalan Generalitat can be arrested. “When he enters Spain he will be perfectly located and if there is really a will to stop himthe Police will do it,” tells us César Alvarado, one of the spokespersons for the Association A Police for the 21st Century.
The president of the autonomous Chamber is Joseph Rull, member of Junts, the group of which Puigdemont himself is a member. The same He has offered his office to the escaped leader as a safe place. Given these facts, the People’s Party has accused him of “twist the rules” to “adapt it to Puigdemont’s needs.”
With your return you risk being arrested. Lawyer Antonio Gómez de Olea explains ‘Euronews’ that within the Parliament “there may be some protection or, let’s say, impediments to arresting the former Catalan vice president.”
“But ultimately, since it is national territory, it will end up being arrested sooner or later, because a Parliament It does not have the same legal status as an Embassy from a community or third country,” adds Gómez de Olea. All this suggests that arrest is inevitable.
What will happen after the arrest of Carles Puigdemont?
If the Civil Guard and the National Police arrest him, he would be transferred directly to the Supreme Court. If the Mossos arrest him, a commander must do itafter greeting him and putting him into the vehicle without handcuffing him to take him to the court on duty, the agent details. Cesar Alvarado.
Once transferred to the court, “would decide on the freedom of Carles Puigdemont and it is most likely that his lawyer will allege the Amnesty Law to defend the freedom of the investigated,” says Antonio Gómez de Olea.
Is Carles Puigdemont going to jail?
“He could go to provisional prison as long as Judge Llarena assesses three concepts: risk of flight, destruction of evidence or repeat crime“So the option of provisional detention would be possible, according to what legal experts tell us.
These groups are expected to can coordinate mass protests in case it occurs the foreseeable arrest of the pro-independence politician.
