The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont mocks authorities and flees Spain again

Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont reappeared Thursday in Barcelona, after nearly seven years away from Spain to evade authorities with the protection of European Union rulers. 

Surrounded by numerous pro-independence politicians, Puigemont delivered a speech where he spoke at an event organized near the Catalan Parliament before hundreds of supporters. Despite the police presence, not a single agent lifted a finger to arrest the fugitive, responsible for and instigator of the coup d'état in 2017. 

Amid shouts from the audience of "president, president!", Puigdemont, on whom an arrest warrant hangs, shouted from the stage, "Long live free Catalonia!" His return came on the same day that the Catalan Parliament had to elect the new regional president, the Socialist Salvador Illa. 

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) governs the country thanks, among others, to the investiture votes that the deputies of Puigdemont 's party (JUNTS) gave to President Pedro Sanchez in exchange for a tailor-made amnesty law to benefit those accused of the coup d'état in Catalonia. This law should have had him as the main beneficiary. However, the Supreme Court ruled that, unlike other separatists who have benefited, he could not benefit from this law as a result of the crime of embezzlement that he is accused of.

The creation of the Amnesty Law provoked numerous citizen protests in the streets because in order to carry it out it was necessary to corrupt the interpretation of the Spanish Constitution with the help of the new president of the Constitutional Court, a historical high official of the Spanish Socialist Party itself. On that occasion, unlike what has happened this Thursday, the police did harshly repress the peaceful protests against the government.

Puigdemont's return and new getaway

Carles Puigdemont returned Thursday to Spain after spending seven years in Belgium and France evading Spanish authorities, which have been looking for him since 2017.

Near the Catalan Parliament, Puigdemont gave his speech and then disappeared again with no word on his whereabouts.  Despite an arrest warrant for him, the Spanish police forces did absolutely nothing to arrest him, even though his return was met with a massive outpouring of protest, even televised on Spanish public television.

Despite this announced and well-known deployment by police forces and public administrations, Puigdemont fled again after giving his speech. The Catalan autonomous police announced a special operation to try to make it look like they were trying to capture him, but it was too late. Catalonia and Spain had witnessed the harsh reality live: criminals roam free in a country run by socialists and separatists.