Separatist Catalan leader Puigdemont’s arrest warrant lifted, clearing path for return to Spain

A Spanish judge on Tuesday lifted the arrest warrant for former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, clearing the way for his return to Spain ahead of a snap general election on November 29.Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena lifted the warrant after the Constitutional Court backed extending Spain’s 2024 amnesty law to cover the crime of embezzlement.The decision marks a major development in the long-running legal and political dispute over Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence bid, which triggered Spain’s deepest political crisis in decades.Amnesty reshapes Puigdemont’s legal battleAround 400 people involved in the independence movement have benefited from the amnesty, which was introduced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist government to ease tensions in Catalonia and secure the support of separatist parties.Puigdemont, who led Catalonia’s regional government when it held a banned independence referendum and later declared an attempted secession, had remained excluded from the measure.He was accused of using public funds to organise the referendum, with Spanish courts previously ruling that the conduct amounted to embezzlement.Puigdemont fled to Belgium in 2017 to avoid detention and remained under an arrest warrant for nearly a decade.

Spain’s Supreme Court had initially ruled that the amnesty did not apply to people investigated for embezzlement, including Puigdemont.Sanchez welcomed Tuesday’s decision, saying it would allow Catalonia to “look to the future.”“We should celebrate that this also helps Catalan society, as it has been demanding throughout this time,” he said at a news conference in Madrid.Coming out of exilePuigdemont briefly returned to Barcelona in August 2024 after almost seven years in exile, appearing before thousands of supporters and renewing his call for Catalan independence.He disappeared before a regional parliamentary vote that installed Socialist Salvador Illa as Catalonia’s leader, evading a police operation aimed at arresting him before returning to Belgium.The amnesty law has remained deeply divisive in Spain.

The conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox have argued that it undermines the rule of law and accused Sanchez of exchanging legal concessions for the parliamentary support of Catalan separatists.Puigdemont’s Junts party later withdrew its backing for Sanchez’s minority government, accusing him of failing to honour commitments, including the amnesty for its leader.Junts’ seven lawmakers voted against housing relief measures proposed by Sanchez’s government last Friday, helping trigger their defeat.Sanchez responded by calling a snap general election for November 29, bringing the vote forward from its scheduled date by several months.Meanwhile, Junts has seen its support weaken as the Catalan independence movement loses momentum and the far-right separatist party Alianca Catalana emerges as a growing rival.