(Bloomberg) -- Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said he will return to Spain this week to stake his claim for a return to office, defying the threat of arrest from Spanish judges.
“The parliament of Catalonia has summoned all the deputies to the investiture debate of the next president of the regional government,” he said in a post on X on Wednesday. “I have to be there and I want to be there. That is why I have embarked on the return journey from exile.”
In a video, Puigdemont said the he would confront the Supreme Court for “refusing to obey the amnesty law.”
“We cannot remain silent in the face of the attitude of rebellion in which some judges of the Supreme Court have indulged,” he said.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez granted an amnesty to Puigdemont and hundreds or other people who still face charges over the illegal referendum on independence in 2017. But a court said that it was not applicable to the embezzlement of which Puigdemont is accused.
Return to Barcelona
Puigdemont’s return to frontline politics after nearly seven years of self-imposed exile in Belgium and France raises the stakes for Sanchez. The Spanish premier has managed to govern for most of that period thanks to a series of complex and increasingly controversial backroom deals.
Sanchez’s current government relies on the support of eight parties in the Spanish parliament, including Puigdemont’s Junts, and the Catalan’s potential appearance in Barcelona would be a signal that that support may now be in jeopardy.
At the same time as Puigdemont’s X post, Junts announced an “institutional reception” for Puigdemont on Thursday at 9 a.m. in the Catalan capital, an hour before the investiture is set to begin.
Puigdemont fled the country in 2017 to escape arrest after organizing an illegal referendum on Catalan independence.
Sanchez has managed to broker an agreement with the ERC — another Catalan independence party — to make the Socialist candidate Salvador Illa the next president of Catalonia, prompting Puigdemont to stage his dramatic return.
Despite Puigdemont’s enduring popularity among separatists, the Catalan election in May marked the first time in four decades that the nationalist bloc didn’t reach a majority of the seats in the regional parliament. Puigdemont’s party got 22% of the votes, compared to Illa’s 28%.
Sanchez has handed further concessions to the Catalans to secure the support of the ERC in the regional assembly.
Under a preliminary agreement endorsed by ERC members last week, the Catalan government will control all taxes paid in the region, and will be allowed to establish a department of Catalan language while Madrid will recognize Catalan sports teams.
(Updates with context starting in fourth paragraph)
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