Cops in Barcelona are searching for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont after the wanted fugitive abruptly returned from exile to make a public announcement that his movement is “still here” and “Holding a referendum is not and will never be a crime,” the BBC reports.
Puigdemont, leader of the Catalan nationalist Junts per Catalunya party, had been hiding in Brussels for the last seven years after he fled charges over a failed 2017 independence referendum for the eastern region, encompassing 16 percent of the country’s population, about 7 percent of its total area, and kicked in 20 percent of national GDP last year. The sudden reappearance in Barcelona on Thursday is seen as a bid to disrupt the investiture of Socialist former Spanish health minister Salvador Illa as the new Catalan president, set for this afternoon local time. Illa is not on team rebel, and, per the BBC, it appears Pudgy’s goal is to cast the frenemy pro-independence party Catalan Republican Left (ERC), as collaborators with Madrid because of their agreement to support Illa’s investiture. That may not end up working out as cops have set up roadblocks on every avenue leading out of Barcelona, aimed at preventing Pudgy from escaping to the countryside.