The separatist former president of Catalonia returned to his home country in a bid to prevent the Catalan parliament from voting in a new socialist government, in what he described as "the only way to return to normality".
ADVERTISEMENTPolice in Barcelona are attempting to locate the former Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont, who returned to the country on Thursday despite a pending arrest warrant.
The Catalan police, Mossos d'Esquadra, have embarked on a search and arrest operation aimed at finding the former separatist leader of the Spanish region following a rally on Thursday morning, setting up roadblocks across the city.
Police have arrested one of their own officers for allegedly helping him escape, according to local reports.
Puigdemont, who fled Spain after organising an illegal independence referendum in the wealthy Spanish region nearly seven years ago, defiantly appeared in Barcelona after travelling from Belgium.
He faces charges of sedition and embezzlement for his role in the attempt to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain.
Earlier on Thursday, long lines of people thronged the Passeig Lluis Companys in Barcelona with Catalan flags at the event ahead of the parliament session Puigdemont planned to attend. He punched the air to cheers on a bright, sunny day.
Tens of thousands of Puigdemont's supporters gathered, some seen readying V for Vendetta-style Puigdemont masks to be worn during the event. The rally was organised by his political party Together for Catalonia (Junts), hours before a new regional government was to take office nearby.
Accusations are flying between different law enforcement agencies in Spain over why Puigdemont wasn't, and still hasn't been, apprehended.
According to the police union JUPOL, Mossos d'Esquadra officers assisted the separatist leader in his arrival at the rally.
"Puigdemont has entered through the crowd thanks to the Mossos who act as escorts for Junts officials," they said on the social platform X where they shared a video of the scene.
Another police union, SUP, has demanded that control of the search for Puigdemont be taken from the Mossos and given to Spain's National Police and the Civil Guard — the country's gendarmerie.
Its spokesperson reportedly described the Mossos' handling of the operation to locate the separatist leader as an "absolutely monumental failure" that "makes a mockery of our judicial system".
Earlier this week, Puigdemont announced that he would return to Spain and that he intended to attend the plenary session of the Catalan Parliament and prevent the vote on the new government led by socialist Salvador Illa.
"In normal democratic conditions, for a deputy like me to announce his intention to attend the session would be unnecessary and irrelevant, but ours are not normal democratic conditions," said the secessionist leader on the lam since the 2017 referendum.
Puidgemont left Spain mere days after the failed referendum on Catalan independence and has since resided in Belgium while serving as an MEP in the European Parliament.
ADVERTISEMENTWhat's next for Puigdemont?
While Puidgemont's whereabouts remain unknown, his homecoming is now set to result in his arrest on sight.
Although it was originally believed the regional parliament would choose to use the tools at its disposal to prevent Puidgemont's immediate arrest, this was never a long-term solution, attorney Antonio Gómez de Olea told Euronews.
"In the end, as it is national territory, he will end up being arrested sooner or later because a parliament does not have the same legal status as an embassy of an EU or third country," Gómez de Olea said.
Once he has been taken to court, "a decision will be made on the release of Puigdemont, and it is most likely that his lawyer will invoke the amnesty law to defend the freedom of the person under investigation," he explained.
ADVERTISEMENTIn May, Spain’s national parliament approved a controversial amnesty law for hundreds of Catalan separatists involved in the illegal and unsuccessful 2017 secession bid that might also benefit Puigdemont — a decision blasted by conservatives and the far right.