Carles Puigdemont celebrates his 63rd birthday this Monday. It has been nine years since he left Spain in 2017 to avoid arrest, the second since the approval of the amnesty law, the first since Junts per Catalunya formalized the severance of relations with the PSOE. “He has never conditioned his return on the political decisions of his party, he is not going to do it now”, they insist to those around him when we wonder if the aspirations of the party former president returning home to Girona could be more feasible with the Government which has activated the judicial file on the causes derived from the process independence only with an executive led by the PP, whose leader accused Pedro Sánchez of having subjected Spain to “unbearable humiliation” by not having already arrested the former Catalan president.
Among those who have direct contact with Puigdemont, confidence dominates that the return can take place in the spring, but they avoid making plans or writing anything on their diaries because there have previously been other moments of waiting that led to nothing.
Puigdemont ceased his functions as an MEP a year and a half ago and his political functions focus on leading the opposition to Government of the PSC in Catalonia, 1,300 kilometers from the Parliament. Installed in his house in Waterloo (Belgium), he tries to maintain an intense activity, based on meetings with entities, organizations, businessmen and political representatives so as not to lose track of what is happening in Catalan and Spanish politics. One of the last guests before Christmas was Arnaldo Otegi, general coordinator of EH Bildu. “It is clear that the Catalonia of today is not the one he left in 2017,” comment his collaborators. He briefly returned to Barcelona in the summer of 2024 to organize a rally on Salvador Illa’s inauguration day, but he fled again in front of a strong Mossos d’Esquadra force.
“He process The independence movement is on pause,” admits one of the party’s trusted people. former president. The same source emphasizes that Junts’ leadership revolves around the idea that “the PSOE will want to take advantage of this to sell itself as the party that brought normality to Catalonia”, which is why more invitations are expected from Pedro Sánchez to rebuild the relationship with Junts. After recognizing the “non-compliance” on his part in his relations with Puigdemont, the President of the Government accelerated the development of the law on multiple recidivism, as well as a decree-law which will allow local authorities and municipal councils to make spending more flexible and financially viable investments.
These are two demands from Junts, as well as the relaxation of deadlines to subject the invoicing process of companies and SMEs to greater verification. The government has postponed the obligation to comply with the Verifactu invoice verification system, tax administration software that digitizes this process. Large businesses will not be required until January 2027, while small businesses and the self-employed will have until July 2027.
“It would also be easier for the PP to look the other way and for the return of Puigdemont to be at the helm of the PSOE, than not to end up with the hot potato,” say those around the former Catalan president. “The PP is tied hand and foot with Vox, and with Puigdemont in Catalonia, relations between the parties would be normalized,” we observe. This same idea was highlighted by the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, during an event with the press on Christmas Eve. “I am sure that the return will take place in the coming months and that it will serve to 100% normalize political relations between the parties,” predicted Sánchez Llibre. The president of the economic entity, a former CiU deputy, regularly visited Puigdemont in Waterloo, the last time in mid-November.
“The PSOE is interested in a return of Puigdemont, Salvador Illa not so much”, underlines the entourage of the president of Junts, fueling the idea that the former Catalan president will gain in the capacity to strengthen the party, once he has overcome the obstacle of distance. If we ask Junts what Puigdemont’s role will be upon his return to Catalonia, the answer is always the same: “The president He will do what he wants. Despite everything, we agree that for the party, it would be more profitable to see it travel throughout Catalonia, carrying out events and projecting its image, rather than acting as leader of the opposition in Parliament.
The expulsion of 400 people in Badalona homeless who had occupied a former institute marked the public debate of the last part of the year in Catalonia, with criticism from social entities and the majority of parties towards the mayor of the PP, Xavier García Albiol, for boasting of having forced exile without offering alternatives to those affected. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, focused his Christmas speech on television, almost five minutes in prime time, on the demand for “humanity”. For his part, the leader of the main opposition party, Puigdemont, expressed his reaction in a standardized message on social networks, calling García Albiol “irresponsible” and accusing Illa of having been excluded from the management of the file. The leader of the far-right Aliança Catalana party, Sílvia Orriols, criticized Puigdemont for devoting himself to making “speeches of Teletubbie (referring to characters from a children’s TV show).
The situation reflects the puzzle in which the former Catalan president remains installed: with a decimated public projection because he continues to reside in Belgium without benefiting from an amnesty law that his party designed and validated, and suffering public snubs from the most ultra part of the independence movement. Junts closed the year by expressing confidence that the return of its leader is near. Without setting specific dates, we are referring to spring, thinking that by then the Constitutional Court will have all the arguments on the table, including a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union which confirms the rule, to definitively unblock Puigdemont’s amnesty.
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