Last week saw dramatic events in Catalonia as Carles Puigdemont, wanted for almost seven years by Spanish justice for spearheading the region’s illegal declaration of independence in 2017, reappeared in the centre of Barcelona and delivered a rousing speech to some 3,500 of his adoring supporters. Then, just as suddenly, he disappeared – to the massive embarrassment of the several hundred policemen who were standing close by waiting to arrest him (though two of them, it seems, may have connived in the escape).
Puigdemont says that he’s now back in Waterloo, south of Brussels, where he’s made his home since 2017: the Belgian authorities refuse to extradite him to Spain. In a defiant statement he emphasised that he never had any intention of allowing himself to be arrested in Barcelona because he is being persecuted for political reasons.
There are many millions of Spaniards who dearly wanted to see Puidgemont in prison
These events are in part fallout from Spain’s general election in July 2023. That election left the country’s right-wing parties tantalisingly short of the 176 seats they needed to form a government. But it eventually proved just possible in extremis for the incumbent prime minister, the left-wing Pedro Sánchez, to cobble together an unholy alliance including Puigdemont’s separatist party, Junts per Catalunya. The price of Puigdemont’s support was a general amnesty for himself, the secessionist leaders and several hundred others charged for their part in the events of 2017.
Once Sánchez had, with the support of Junts, secured a new term, most of the following months were spent in protracted negotiations over the amnesty bill as the separatists strove to ensure that it contained no loopholes. Indeed, so much time and energy was expended on the matter that for over a year now Spain’s parliament has struggled to pass any other major legislation.
The amnesty bill when it was finally approved was hugely controversial. ‘Do those who carried out a coup d’état, those who continually say they are going to do it again, do they deserve an amnesty?’ asked a former deputy prime minister from Sánchez’s own party. But perhaps the question that most troubled millions of Spaniards was: ‘Since when are the laws written by the criminals?’
In the event, the amnesty law turned out not to be as fool-proof as Puigdemont and his allies intended. Spain’s supreme court ruled that the alleged misuse of public funds by Puigdemont and others was not covered by it. Although that ruling can and will be appealed, the immediate consequence was that Puigdemont is not yet fully amnestied – which is why he should have been arrested in Barcelona last week.
The failure to do so leaves Sánchez and his government vulnerable on all sides. During his short speech in Barcelona, Puidgemont spoke of the ‘savage repression’ that has been visited on Catalonia since 2017 and then went on to lambast the judges and Sánchez’s government, asking rhetorically why Catalans would want to remain ‘in a country where the amnesty laws do not even amnesty’. His party, Junts, has now threatened to review its support for the national government. One senior Junts figure said that Puigdemont had been denied his ‘political rights’ (as an elected member of the Catalan regional assembly) because of the police operation targeting him. ‘The situation has now changed,’ he continued ominously, ‘and we have to see if it [continuing to prop up Sánchez’s government] still makes sense.’
Meanwhile, the right-wing opposition parties have barely been able to contain their fury at the sight of Puigdemont once again escaping justice. Alberto Feijóo, leader of the Partido Popular, described Puigdemont’s escape as ‘unspeakable’ and an ‘unbearable humiliation’. Calling for the sacking of the ministers responsible, he said that ‘after this farce, the government cannot go on holiday while laughing at the Spanish people’.
That, however, seems to be the plan. Traditionally, August is Spain’s holiday month and most political activity more or less ceases. By September, Sánchez and his ministers must be hoping, the farcical incompetence displayed last week may have been at least partly forgotten.
That could be a forlorn hope, however. There are many millions of Spaniards who dearly wanted to see Puidgemont in prison and the right-wing parties will be intent on channelling that popular fury. And if Puidgemont’s party does withdraw its support, Sánchez’s government, unable to pass any laws, will be a sitting duck – in office but not in power.
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