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The former MEP faces immediate arrest if he returns to the country he fled in October 2017 to avoid prison, three days after the failed Catalan declaration of independence.
Former president of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont announced Wednesday that he is on his way back to Spain after years of avoiding the Spanish justice system.The separatist leader reiterated that the trip back home was his last option to try to avoid what he said was a pro-Spanish regional government in Catalonia, which is set to be voted on in the regional parliament in Barcelona on Thursday.”I have to be there, and I want to be. That is why I have undertaken the journey back from exile,” he said in a video on social media platform X on Wednesday.He also asked his supporters to gather and escort him to the Catalan parliament prior to the session. His party, Junts, said it was organising a welcome in Barcelona at 9 am CET on Thursday.It is yet unclear how Puigdemont, who has been avoiding charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement for nearly seven years, plans to enter his home country and reach Barcelona. If spotted by law enforcement, the former MEP is bound to be immediately arrested, adding to the belief that he plans to sneak in illegally.Catalan regional police, Mossos d’Esquadra have put together an increased security plan ahead of tomorrow’s parliamentary session, deploying additional officers and planning to limit access to Barcelona’s Ciutadella park — where the parliament is located — in a bid to prevent Puigdemont from entering the building.Hiding in a bonnetEarlier this week, Puigdemont posted a three-page letter on the same platform stating that after seven years of exile in Belgium and France, he would return to his homeland imminently to “defend against Spanish repression”.”If I get arrested, it won’t be the first time,” he said, referring to stints of imprisonment in Italy and Germany due to his parliamentary activity.The former MEP faces immediate arrest if he returns to the country he fled in October 2017.Puigdemont fled Spain in October 2017, travelling to Belgium three days after the failed Catalan declaration of independence to avoid prison. The failed referendum resulted in days of protests and hundreds of arrests, including those of his political colleagues.Following the suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy and the dismissal of its government by Mariano Rajoy’s conservative administration, he concealed himself in a car’s bonnet and made his way north.
