Former Catalan independence leader Puigdemont returns to Barcelona: Arrest operation begins

Barcelona, ​​August 8, 2024. Inside the Catalan regional parliament, the inauguration of the new governor begins. The Socialist takes the floor. Salvador Illa. He immediately promised to govern for everyone and not to “dismantle anything”. He says: “I came to build. I find myself in a better country than the one I (Pere Aragonés, still president of Catalonia) found at the beginning of your mandate”.

Silence reigns inside Parliament. But outside, A political and judicial earthquake could erupt.After about seven years (2475 days) Carles Puigdemont He’s back. The pro-independence former president and leader of Junts per Catalunya, who fled into exile after his failed secession bid in 2017 over an illegal referendum on Spanish independence, speaks to thousands of supporters at a fast-moving rally.

And amidst the applause he remembers: “We have no right to make concessions, because the right to self-determination belongs to the people.”And again: “They have been persecuting us for seven years because we wanted to listen to the voice of the Catalan people, for years since the very harsh repression began.” “They have turned being Catalan into something suspicious. But we are still here because we do not have the right to surrender.” Then he insists: “We are not interested in staying in a country where amnesty laws do not work.”

Puigdemont finished his speech and left. He knew that he could be arrested at any moment. It still applied to him. noteThe Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalonia Police) activated Operation Gola for three and a half hours. More than 300 agents searched everywhere for him. They closed some streets in the city. There cagecage, used for bloc within the country The former leader of the group. He says a member of the Mossos family was arrested because he was involved in the escape of the leader of the gang. Country. And he will be the owner of the car that investigators believe the former Catalan president used to escape.

August 8th seems to be hard dayThe scenario is the same as in 1-O, the denunciation of the national police unions of JUPOL. On October 1, 2017, on the sidelines of the celebrations of the illegal referendum, among the crowd that flattered Puigdemont, some of the Mussolini accompanied the independence leader instead of staying away from him.

Article is being updated…