Ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont returns to Spain — then vanishes again

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Police launched a manhunt in Barcelona on Thursday for ex-Catalonia leader and fugitive Carles Puigdemont, a celebrated campaigner for Catalan independence who made a sensational return to Spain and an equally sensational getaway from a speech in the city with the alleged help of local police officers.

The events took place nearly seven years after Puigdemont fled Spain after a failed independence bid, with an outstanding arrest warrant pending against him.

Puigdemont had previously announced his intention to be in Spain on a day that Catalonia's parliament is due to swear in a new president. The 61-year-old initially lived in Belgium after bolting from Spain in 2017, but his latest place of residence wasn't known.

Puigdemont kept his travel plans secret before setting out to the wealthy Catalan region in northeastern Spain. He gave a speech in front of a large crowd of supporters in central Barcelona under the noses of police officers, who made no attempt to detain him.

After his speech, in a cloak-and-dagger moment, Puigdemont went into an adjacent marquee tent. There, he hurried out of an exit and jumped into a waiting car that sped away, according to an Associated Press photographer who witnessed his departure.

Catalan police arrested two of their own officers on the suspicion of aiding Puigdemont's getaway, suspecting the former leader of Catalonia used the private car of one of them, the force's press office told The Associated Press. No further details were available.

About three hours after Puigdemont vanished, Catalan police — called Mossos d'Esquadra — called off traffic checks without saying why, but later said they resumed them after a couple of hours.

Officers initially held back from swooping to arrest Puigdemont out of concern the move might "cause public disorder," a police statement said. Officers tried to stop the fleeing vehicle, but were unable to do so, it said, though it added that further arrests were expected. The statement didn't elaborate.

The Catalan police force operates separately from Spain's Policía Nacional. At the time of the 2017 ballot, the Spanish government suspended the Mossos' chief and placed the force under investigation for failing to stop the vote. The chief and his staff were eventually exonerated.

Authorities had set up a police cordon at the nearby regional parliament where Puigdemont was expected to go after his speech.

Once Puigdemont had slipped away, roadside police units checked vehicles across the city of around 1.6 million people in an effort to nab him. The checks snarled city traffic. Police also checked vehicles heading on highways to neighboring France.

Puigdemont faces charges of embezzlement for his part in an attempt to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain in 2017. As regional president and separatist party leader at the time, he was a key player in the independence referendum that was outlawed by the central government but went ahead anyway.

Those events triggered a political crisis that roiled Spain for months.

Puigdemont's appearance in Barcelona, Catalonia's capital, and his game of cat-and-mouse with police, stole the show on a day when a new government was being sworn in at the regional parliament.

Local police were deployed in a security ring around a section of the park where Catalonia's parliament building is located behind walls. Meanwhile, Puigdemont, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie, walked with supporters to the nearby stage where he gave his speech.

Addressing the crowd in the park and at times pumping his fist, Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities of "a crackdown" on the Catalan separatist movement.

"For the last seven years we have been persecuted because we wanted to hear the voice of the Catalan people," Puigdemont said. "They have made being Catalan into something suspicious."

He added: "All people have the right to self-determination."

The gripping turn of events, broadcast live on Spanish television channels, was likely to bring political recriminations.

The leader of the Popular Party, the main opposition to Spain's left-of-center coalition government which has long rebuffed Catalonia's independence movement, condemned Puigdemont's return. Alberto Núñez Feijóo posted on X that Puigdemont's reappearance was an "unbearable humiliation" that damaged Spain's reputation.

Spain's government encouraged a deal brokered after months of deadlock between Salvador Illa's Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the other main Catalan separatist party and left-wing Esquerra Republicana (ERC). That deal had ensured just enough support in Catalonia's parliament for Illa to become the next regional president in a vote later Thursday.

Speaking to Catalan lawmakers before the vote, Illa called for reconciliation and respect for Spain's controversial amnesty bill. He vowed to govern for all Catalans after years of bitter divisions between those in favor of independence and those against it.

Puigdemont has dedicated his career to the goal of carving out a new country in northeast Spain — a struggle which is decades-old and has often thumbed his nose at authorities. His largely uncompromising approach has brought political conflict with other separatist parties as well as with Spain's central government.

A contentious amnesty bill, crafted by Spain's Socialist-led coalition government, could potentially clear Puigdemont and hundreds of other supporters of Catalan independence of any wrongdoing in the 2017 ballot. Spain's central government and the Constitutional Court declared at the time that the referendum was illegal.

But the bill, approved by Spain's parliament earlier this year, is being challenged by the Supreme Court, which argues the pardon doesn't apply to embezzlement, unlike other crimes that Puigdemont had previously been charged with.

Puigdemont could be placed in pretrial detention if he is arrested.