Preparing a return

Carles Puigdemont, leader of Junts and former president of the Generalitat, said in an interview with Jordi Basté for the programme Pla seqüència on La 2 Cat that he is now preparing his return to Catalonia. Speaking from his home in Waterloo, Belgium, he said he had spent years preparing his exile and was now preparing his homecoming. He argued that the Constitutional Court's endorsement of the Amnesty Law has taken the process past the point of no return. The Supreme Court has lifted the national arrest warrant against him, but the full application of the amnesty law by that court is still pending. He is waiting for that step before organising his return, which is expected after the general elections on 29 November.

“It is irreversible and, therefore, they will have to end up signing the surrender.”

Refusing the opposition post

Puigdemont indicated that he will not act as leader of the opposition in the Parlament once he is back. He said he could not hold that role, and that a former president should not then go on to scrutinise the person who succeeded him, whoever that may be. He also said the Catalonia he left in 2017 no longer exists and that he wants to discover the new reality for himself and listen above all to younger generations. According to LaSexta, he plans to visit the Amer cemetery to pay tribute to his deceased parents on his return. In the same interview he said he would tour Catalonia once he is back.

The 2017 departure

Puigdemont rejected the widely repeated claim that he left Spain hidden in a car boot. He said he left by car late on 29 October 2017, the feast of Sant Narcís, sitting in the back seat in a suit and tie, and spent his first night at the Hotel Chambord in Brussels. He said he dressed formally in case he was arrested and images of him were published, so that the presidency of the Generalitat would not be humiliated. He also said he was ready to stay abroad for life to keep the institution from being exposed to a handcuffed president in front of a Spanish judge.

“I have never gone in a car trunk.”

The brief 2024 return

In August 2024 Puigdemont reappeared at the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona to make a short speech before the investiture of Salvador Illa, then returned to Belgium without being arrested. He said his plan had been to speak in the Parlament even if he was then detained, to denounce that the amnesty law was not being applied. He said he backed off when he saw he would not be able to reach the chamber. In a later message he described a journey to the French border in the back of a car with tinted windows. He also said the Waterloo residence, whose price he says he does not know, is paid for with donations and never with public money.

Amnesty and the 2023 negotiations

Puigdemont said the PSOE offered him a deal "similar to pardons" before Junts votes became decisive for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez in 2023, and that he rejected it because it did not resolve the conflict politically. He said he told the socialist emissary that he would accept only an amnesty, and was told that an amnesty was impossible. After the general elections of July 2023, he said, the circumstances changed and Junts put the amnesty forward as a condition. He admitted that he had at times thought the amnesty would never be applied in his case, because he believed nobody wanted his return.

Key dates

The sequence runs from his departure in 2017 to the general elections expected to shape his return. Those dates are set out below.