In 2017 the Catalan premier, Carles Puigdemont, having first organised an illegal referendum and then declared unilateral independence from Spain, escaped arrest by hiding in the boot of a car. While other Catalan leaders went to prison for sedition, Puigdemont fled to Belgium where he’s spent most of the last six years living comfortably in self-imposed exile.
Now he’s preparing to make a triumphant return to Spain as a free man. The socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who has just been officially re-elected, has granted an amnesty to Puigdemont and hundreds of others facing fines and imprisonment for their part in that push for independence. Sánchez had previously promised the Spanish people that such an amnesty was impossible. But that was before he discovered that he needed the support of the Catalan separatists to form a new government.
For most Spaniards it is simply brazen, unprincipled opportunism – clemency for fugitives from justice in return for votes
As he watched the general election results coming in on 23 July, Puigdemont must have been pinching himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
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