Simon Hunter
A SUPREME Court judge has requested reports from the Catalan regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, as well as the central Interior Ministry, after politician and fugitive from justice Carles Puigdemont managed to evade arrest on Thursday in Barcelona and seemingly disappear into thin air.
Opposition politicians on Thursday described the situation as ‘unbearable’ and ‘humiliating’ for the Spanish state.
Pablo Llarena, the magistrate in charge of investigating the 2017 independence drive in Catalunya, wants information about the operation yesterday that was supposed to see Puigdemont arrested.
Instead of being detained, however, he was able to appear in Barcelona – his first time on Spanish soil since he fled in the wake of the events of 2017 to avoid arrest – and give a speech, before leaving in a vehicle.
Read more: Who is Carles Puigdemont and why are police hunting him in Spain?
Puigdemont had been expected to enter the parliament building in the Catalan capital, where Socialist Salvador Illa was being voted in as the new regional premier.
Instead he gave the authorities the slip before they could arrest him.
The whole episode has done serious reputational damage to the Mossos, given that there were more than 300 of the force’s officers on the scene on Thursday.
Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since 2017, had announced that he would come back to Spain on the day of the investiture debate.
The Mossos, according to Spanish daily El Pais, believed that his arrest would be relatively simple, and they were planning on collaring him as he entered the parliament building.
He is wanted by the Supreme Court to face charges of misappropriation of funds, and so far has not benefited from the amnesty law passed by the central Spanish government that quashes charges still faced by those involved in the Catalan independence drive, and that is designed to further calm the waters between Catalunya and Madrid.
Police sources told reporters that after he gave a speech to a crowd outside the Catalan parliament building, he and fellow politician Jordi Turull put on caps and got into a white Honda, accompanied by another two people.
Despite the journalists on the scene, no one managed to capture an image of his escape.
Once the alarm had been raised, police put roadblocks in place in a bid to locate the politician.
Two officers from the Mossos were detained on Thursday on suspicion of aiding the escape.
The Interior Ministry has reportedly passed on its displeasure to the Mossos, while sources from the Policia Nacional said that Puigdemont should have been arrested before he could get to the stage to deliver his speech, El Pais reported.
The leader of the main opposition Partido Popular (PP), Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, took to social network X to denounce the ‘unbearable humiliation’ that the episode represented for the Spanish state, and placed the blame squarely at Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s door.
Sanchez has relied on support from Puigdemont’s party, Junts per Catalunya, to be voted back in as prime minister and to pass legislation, in exchange for concessions for the region.
The PP’s general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, gave a statement on Thursday in which she slammed what she called an ‘embarrassing spectacle’ and also railed against the CNI secret service for ‘not complying with its functions’.
