Carles Puigdemont aims to reignite Catalan separatism

“PRESIDENT! PUIGDEMONT!” The supporters who greeted Carles Puigdemont (pictured) on March 21st in the French town of Elne still see him as the true leader of Catalonia. And they hope he will soon be the official one again too. Mr Puigdemont announced that he will lead his party, Junts per Catalunya, in regional elections in May. But he did so 13km from the border, because he cannot set foot in Spain without being arrested.

In 2017, when he was president of Catalonia, Mr Puigdemont held an unconstitutional referendum on independence. After a Spanish crackdown, he fled to exile in Belgium. But when Spanish elections left a hung parliament last July, Mr Puigdemont’s price for letting his party’s MPs back Pedro Sánchez as prime minister was amnesty for the referendum’s organisers, including himself. That amnesty passed the lower house of Spain’s parliament on March 14th. The senate, controlled by the conservative People’s Party, wants nothing to do with it. But it can only delay the amnesty; unless the constitutional court overturns it, it will take effect within months.