PORTRAIT – Subject to parliamentary debate on Wednesday and Thursday, the reappointment of Pedro Sánchez could mark the return to favor of the independence figure who has disappeared from Spanish political life since 2017.
Shamed by some, seen by others as a symbol of Catalan independence, MEP Carles Puigdemont had disappeared from Spanish political life since 2017. At least apparently. From Brussels, the city where he found refuge six years ago, Carles Puigdemont and the seven deputies of his party Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia, editor’s note) hold the key to the majority that the socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez needs to stay in power.
This extension will be debated in the Spanish Parliament on Wednesday and Thursday and its outcome will determine the fate of the two men, who are now inextricably linked after a highly controversial agreement was signed between their two parties last week. In order to achieve the majority he failed to achieve in last May’s general election against the conservative party, Pedro Sánchez promised Catalan separatists an amnesty for hundreds of their leaders involved in the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017, as well as a return to Catalonia Spain by Carles Puigdemont.
Conductor of the 2017 crisis
Triggering one of the worst crises in Spain, the events of 2017 brought Carles Puigdemont to the forefront of the political scene. After five years at the helm of the town hall of Girona, a city of 100,000 inhabitants in northeastern Spain, he was elected president of the Generality of Catalonia in January 2016, before announcing the organization of a referendum for the independence of the autonomous community almost a year and a half later .
The man, then 53 years old and unknown to the general public, nevertheless warned when he took over the leadership of the regional institution: “This is not the time for cowards, for cowards, nor for those whose legs fail.” This was described by the Spanish courts as The referendum, classified as illegal, took place on October 1 of the same year: according to the separatists, the “yes” vote won with 90% of the vote. On October 10th they proclaimed Catalonia’s independence, but it was not recognized.
Police violence, strikes, mass demonstrations… Spain is plunging into chaos. As the country’s sovereign calls for the restoration of order, Carles Puigdemont appears on television with his usual thick bangs on his forehead, intended to hide the aftereffects of a childhood accident. He stands next to a Catalan flag and accuses the sovereign of not taking into account the wishes of his people.
Before the end of the month, conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dissolved the Catalan government. But on November 2, when eight members of the Catalan government were arrested, the main suspect had disappeared: Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium, where he settled in Waterloo in the south.
Six years on the run, two arrests
Successive arrest warrants will be issued against the exile on various charges, from rebellion to embezzlement to sedition. To this day he is being prosecuted by the Spanish courts for disobedience and serious embezzlement. However, Puigdemont escaped every attempt at arrest.
He was arrested for the first time in Germany in 2018 and was eventually released in Spain despite an extradition request. Three years later, back in Italy: while passing through Sardinia, where he went to a cultural festival, he spent a night in prison in September 2021.
It is also thanks to the parliamentary immunity that the Catalan gained when he was elected as a member of the European Parliament in 2019 that he has escaped justice. But this immunity does not seem to last forever: the sixty-year-old was lifted by his colleagues in March 2021 and tried several times to challenge this decision, but without success.
Confectioner, philologist, journalist
Nothing seemed to have predestined Carles Puidgemont to take control of Spanish politics from the European capital. Carles Puigdemont grew up between “turron” and “capricis”, sweet family pastry specialties, in the town of Amer, near the city of Girona, where he became a city councilor and then mayor in 2011. He studied Catalan philology before becoming a journalist. After appearing in various local press titles, the young man began to campaign for the independence of the autonomous community.
Since becoming a key figure in the matter, he had not welcomed Pedro Sánchez’s overtures to his party, despite the pardon granted in 2021 to the nine separatists convicted in 2019. He regularly denounced the desire for rapprochement by the more moderate separatists and rejected a new mandate for Pedro Sánchez, but then changed his mind thanks to the agreement reached last week. The amnesty law submitted to parliament on Monday sparked violent demonstrations in Spain and is the subject of judicial review.
For many, Carles Puigdemont remains the symbol of Spanish ruptures and is aware of it. According to Portal, he has often been the target of insults or threats and submitted a request for protection to Spanish authorities on November 6, citing an increased risk of violence against him. As his conservative opponent Alberto Nuñez Feijoo pointed out, the exile could now be escorted by the state’s National Police, which has been trying to see him behind bars for six years.
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