Puigdemont promises a return "of country" and not "of party" after nine years of exile

Waterloo / BarcelonaThe former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont has declared the end of the "political repression" stage following October 1st after the Constitutional Court has fully endorsed the amnesty. The decision represents, he said, a defeat for the various Spanish public powers that have thrown a wrench in the works of the law's application "for strictly political reasons." The institutional appearance of the former head of the Government took place this afternoon, a few hours after the Supreme Court also announced the lifting of his arrest warrant, which marks the first definitive step for him to return from exile to Catalonia. The leader of Junts has claimed the "enormous political importance" of the law, which disauthorizes the repression and demonstrates that "this was not the way." However, he warned that the political conflict with the State remains in force: "In terms of the Catalonia-Spain relationship, nothing is solved today [...]. The amnesty is not in itself a solution," he claimed from Waterloo.

Puigdemont, however, has avoided answering the big question of how and when he plans to return. But his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, did advance this morning that the former president will wait for the case against him to be archived, a process that could still take a few weeks. "There is no specific date for the return because we are waiting for the Supreme Court to definitively close the case," he said in statements to 3Cat, in which he also opined that Puigdemont should avoid his return influencing the electoral campaign. "I believe the president is very clear that he must not confuse taking the temperature of the territories with doing so in the middle of an electoral campaign, that would be a mistake," he assured.

During the speech, the leader of Junts claimed that he wants his return to have a sense of country, and not of party. "We will return, not at the service of our party, but at the service of our country," he said. "We did not go into exile to defend each person's political parties but to defend the rights and institutions of the people of Catalonia," he insisted. These statements raise a question about whether his return will take place in the middle of an electoral campaign.

Likewise, the Junts member has asserted the strategy of exile, which he has followed together with former ministers Lluís Puig and Toni Comín, and which has consisted of defending Catalan institutions against any attempt to subject them to the "Spanish repressive whim". The exile, he said, has had good political results, such as the various favorable rulings from European courts, but also effects on their personal lives and their political projects.

Sánchez will not meet with Puigdemont

The lifting of the arrest warrant comes the day after the early elections in the Spanish state. With this pretext, Pedro Sánchez has ruled out a meeting with Puigdemont, the great pending meeting of the socialist leader. In 2023, it was the then-organization secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, who traveled to Waterloo to negotiate his investiture with the leader of Junts.

"We are in electoral times," the Spanish president justified in a press conference. However, Sánchez did celebrate the Constitutional Court's endorsement of the amnesty: "It was a political problem that we had to resolve through politics." Furthermore, he recalled that his government also promoted the pardons thinking about the "coexistence between Catalans" and the "cohesion of Spain." "I respect the resolution of the Constitutional Court and I celebrate that with this we also help Catalan society to look forward, learn from mistakes, and continue moving forward," he summarized, reports Núria Orriols Guiu.

Junqueras also celebrates the amnesty

The Constitutional Court's decision was transcendental for Puigdemont's return, but also for Oriol Junqueras to be able to run in an election. That is to say, to allow the return of the exiles and to lift the disqualification that still weighs on the leader of ERC, but also on the former ministers Jordi Turull, Dolors Bassa, and Raül Romeva, to whom the amnesty law had not been applied for the crime of embezzlement. "Carles Puigdemont must be able to return. Oriol Junqueras must be able to run in an election. All repressed persons must recover all their rights," defended Junqueras in a statement from the party headquarters. In this sense, he welcomed the TC's endorsement of the amnesty law, but also warned that this does not mean that the political conflict has "disappeared".

Junqueras has advocated seizing the opportunity to leave behind the judicialization of the conflict to return it to the field of politics: "We have arrived here because we have done politics. And now we must do more of it". Junqueras' goal is to run as the ERC candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in the next Catalan elections. Therefore, the next step that the Supreme Court must take to lift his disqualification definitively is key. Esquerra trusts that it will be in the coming weeks when judge Manuel Marchena applies the Constitutional Court's ruling.

The ERC leader used his statement to vindicate ERC's negotiation strategy of recent years and thanked the work done by the party to negotiate with the Spanish state when he could not. He directly cited the work of the former secretary general of ERC Marta Rovira –with whom he has not had a relationship for some time following the party crisis two years ago– and also of the former deputy secretary Marta Vilaret; of the current president of ERC in Parliament, Josep Maria Jové; of the deputy in Congress Pilar Vallugera, and of the senator Joan Queralt.

"It is a great victory for the independence movement"

The secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, had already celebrated the Constitutional Court's decision this noon and stressed that he even had to "control his emotions": "We are very happy," he stated in a press conference. For this reason, he commented that "it is a great victory for the independence movement" and ratified that the only resolution to the conflict is self-determination. For his part, the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, celebrated it as a "resounding victory" and said that there must be a "feeling of gratitude" towards Puigdemont "for having preserved" the presidency of the Generalitat while avoiding prison, he said from Catalunya Ràdio.

In turn, the CUP has called to "put the goal of independence back at the center," while Òmnium has urged the Supreme Court to apply the amnesty "without further delay" to "definitively close the cycle of repression." The Comuns also celebrated the decision, although the former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, retorted: "Carles Puigdemont will have trouble walking through Catalonia," in reference to the 'no' from the Junts members to the two housing decrees, she said on RTVE.