Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has managed to flee Spain – despite a large police presence and a warrant for his arrest – and is heading to Belgium after a brief visit to Barcelona, the secretary general of his party said on Friday.
His plan is to continue working from Waterloo, Junts Secretary General Jordi Turull told Catalan radio station RAC1.
Puigdemont had been in Barcelona since Tuesday evening, he said.
After giving a brief speech, Puigdemont managed to flee despite a large contingent of police seeking to arrest him on Thursday.
Earlier, Puigdemont’s lawyer said he was “outside the Spanish state.”
Lawyer Gonzalo Boye did not state whether Puigdemont had returned to Belgium, where he had spent most of his almost seven-year exile.
Puigdemont will address the public in the near future, Boye said.
Puigdemont sought to lead Catalonia to independence in 2017 with a referendum that was declared illegal. He then fled the country hidden in a car and spent most of his time in exile in Belgium. He was later also based in southern France.
The Catalan police, who were supposed to arrest Puigdemont, were caught off guard as they did not expect him to disappear right after his speech, according to reports.
Puigdemont had said in advance that he wanted to be present for the election of pro-Spanish Socialist Salvador Illa as the new leader in the region’s parliament.
However, after speaking, Puigdemont escaped in a white car, reports said. Two policemen were later arrested on suspicion of helping him flee.
Spain has an amnesty for separatists but there is still an arrest warrant for Puigdemont, accused by investigating judge Pablo Llarena of embezzlement in 2017, an offence exempt from the amnesty.
Llarena is now demanding an explanation from the police as to how Puigdemont managed to escape.
The Catalan police are due to comment on the failed arrest at a press conference.
Earlier, Puigdemont said he is “healthy, safe and above all free,” according to Lluis Llach, a Catalan singer-songwriter and head of the separatist civil movement ANC in a post on the social media platform X.
He said Puigdemont had asked him to convey this message but did not mention where he is or what he plans to do.
Earlier Boye, the lawyer, seemed to make light of Puigdemont’s return, brief speech to thousands of supporters in Barcelona, and subsequent disappearance despite a large police presence.
Boye described this as a normal workday. “He completed his political work and went home after his work was done, like everyone else does,” he told journalists, without disclosing where “home” is.
He also said that Puigdemont would “never surrender.”
