Catalonia’s fugitive separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to return to Spain

After years of avoiding the Spanish justice system, former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, has announced he intends to return to Spain.

The separatist leader posted a three-page letter on social media platform X stating that after seven years of exile in Belgium and France, he would return to his homeland imminently to “defend against Spanish repression”.

“If I get arrested, it won’t be the first time,” he said, referring to stints of imprisonment in Italy and Germany due to his parliamentary activity.

In the letter, Piogdemont said he is aware of the risk of being detained once he returned but underlined that it is his last option to try to avoid what he said was a pro-Spanish regional government in Catalonia, which is set to take over this week after a vote in the regional parliament.

The decision carries great personal risk for the former MEP, who faces immediate arrest if he returns to the country he fled in October 2017.

Puigdemont travelled to Belgium three days after the failed Catalan declaration of independence to avoid prison. The failed referendum resulted in days of protests and hundreds of arrests, including those of his political colleagues.

Following the suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy and the dismissal of its government by Mariano Rajoy’s conservative administration, he concealed himself in a car’s trunk and made his way north to avoid charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement.