Catalan Police Does Not Believe ‘Fake News’ That Puigdemont Is In Belgium, Still Search For Him In Barcelona
By Charles Szumski and Fernando Heller
(EurActiv) — There is “no objective proof” to confirm that former Catalan president and separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, currently under a national arrest warrant, has managed to flee Spain to Belgium, after his controversial visit to Barcelona on Thursday (8 August), according to Catalan police chief Eduard Sallent.
On Friday (9 August), Jordi Turull, secretary general of the right-wing separatist party Together for Catalonia (JxCat), the formation led by Puigdemont, assured listenerson Catalan radio stationRAC1,that Puigdemont had arrived on Tuesday – incognito – in Barcelona, protected by a group of loyal supporters, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.
But after his brief political rally in Barcelona, he managed to escape, and according to Turull, the former Catalan president is now in Waterloo, Belgium. Where he originally fled in October 2017, smuggled out in the boot of a car, thanks to the help of several Mossos d’Esquadra agents, Catalonia’s regional police.
Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, stressed on Friday that “everything wentas Puigdemonthad previously planned,” as “he had not planned to be arrested” on Thursday.
“He did not come to (Barcelona) to surrender, he came to fight,” Boye told Catalan radio stations RAC1 and Catalunya Ràdio.
According to him, Puigdemont could be issuing a statement or speaking to his supporters on Friday or Saturday (10 August), possibly revealing his current whereabouts.
However refuting Turull’s view of where Puigdement was hiding, Eduard Sallent the chief officer of Catalonia’s regional police, at a press conference in Barcelona, stressed that there is “no objective proof” that confirms Puigdemont is in Belgium.
The Mossos d’Esquadra described the statements of Puigdement’s whereabouts as “disinformation”, being spread by the people close to the former Catalan president.
“Until we have evidence that he is beyond the scope of our powers, we will continue to look for him in order to comply with the arrest warrant,” said Sallent, as reported by EFE.
PP demands resignation of two ministers and explanations from Sánchez
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Spain’s conservative media and right-wing parties – including the PP (EPP) and the far-right VOX party (Patriots), the third force in the national parliament – said on Friday that it was a “disgrace” and a “fiasco”, that security forces have been unable (or unwilling) to arrest Puigdemont.
Despite the introduction last June of the controversial amnesty law, which pardons actions committed by separatist activists between 2011 and 2023 – from which Puigdemont also hopes to benefit from – Spanish Supreme Court judgePablo Llarenastill maintains a national arrest warrant for the separatist leader.
In July 2023, the Spanish Supreme Court refused toapply the amnesty lawto Puigdemont for the case of misappropriation of public funds – as he used them to pay for the ‘self-determination’ referendum he organised in Catalonia in 2017.
The court considered his actions “potentially” affected the financial interests of the EU, among other reasons.
The current scandal over the alleged complicity of some members of the Catalan police in the escape of Puigdemont, this week, reached its climax on Friday amid a war of words and accusations between the various Catalan state and regional security forces.
The leader of the right-wing Partido Popular (PP/EPP),Alberto Núñez Feijóo, head of the opposition, demanded on Friday the urgent appearance before the national parliament of Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), and the “immediate dismissal” of the Interior and Defence Ministers, Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Margarita Robles, for their “negligence” in the police operation and failures of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), EFE reported.
“What happened yesterday (Thursday) is unspeakable and cannot go unpunished. I demand the appearance of Sánchez and the immediate dismissal of Marlaska and Robles for the negligence of the police operation and the CNI. Faced with such a farce, the government cannot continue to be on holiday, laughing at all Spaniards,” Feijóo commented on X.
VOX leaderSantiago Abascalalso demanded on Friday Sanchez’s resignation and the minister of interior and the director of the CNI, considering all three as “accomplices” in the escape of Puigdemont.
Among the ranks of JxCat, there is also a feeling of frustration mixed with anger.
On Friday they warned that if the amnesty law is not fully applied – so that Puigdemont can return to Spain freely – they will withdraw the much needed support of their seven deputies in the Madrid parliament from the Sánchez coalition government with the left-wing platform Sumar, which could lead to the fall of the progressive executive.