A SUPREME Court judge has lifted the arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont, paving the way for the divisive former Catalan president to return to Spain ahead of next month’s snap general election.
Pablo Llarena scrapped the detention order just hours after the Constitutional Court ruled by seven votes to five to overturn a previous verdict which had said the controversial amnesty law introduced by prime minister Pedro Sanchez in 2024 did not apply to certain crimes.
Puigdemont, who has lived in exile in Belgium for almost a decade after fleeing Spain in the boot of a car, was widely expected to be the law’s highest-profile beneficiary.
The right-wing separatist Junts per Catalunya party, of which Puigdemont is leader, demanded the carve-out in exchange for giving Sanchez enough votes to command a majority in Congress.
But hopes of a triumphant return were dashed two years ago after the Supreme Court ruled that the amnesty did not apply to the alleged misuse of public funds, meaning an arrest warrant remained in force.
The Constitutional Court announced the reversal on Tuesday morning but will take several days to publish the full judgement, which will establish the legal doctrine for the remaining cases.
The verdict split largely along political lines – all seven progressive judges backed the motion, while the five conservative judges dissented.
Once published in its entirety, the ruling is also expected to apply to former ministers Antonio Comin and Lluis Puig who, like Puigdemont, fled to Belgium after criminal proceedings were opened over their role in the Catalan independence drive.
The separatist movement, known as ‘el procés’ (‘the process’), reached its nadir in 2017 with an illegal referendum and a unilateral declaration of independence.
The move prompted Mariano Rajoy’s government to impose direct rule on Catalunya from Madrid before calling fresh elections.
Criminal charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds were brought against Puigdemont and his allies, many of whom fled across the border into France to evade arrest.
“This is a great victory for President Puigdemont, not the president of Junts, but the legitimate president of Catalunya,” said Jordi Turull, the general secretary of Junts, at a press conference on Tuesday.
Puigdemont is due to speak at 6pm on Tuesday evening, when he is expected to address the latest development.
He last visited Spain in 2024 in an infamous flying visit to Barcelona, delivering a speech to supporters packed into the city centre before quietly disappearing back across the border undetected.
The lifting of the arrest warrant now raises the very real possibility of Puigdemont returning to Spain for good – possibly even before November’s snap general election.
Embattled prime minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Monday that Spain would go to the polls on November 29 after a flagship housing bill was voted down in Congress, sparking widespread protests.
Sanchez and his allies in the PSOE are hoping to capitalise on that anger after a bruising few months, including numerous corruption scandals within Sanchez’s inner circle and July’s unprecedented migrant crossing into Ceuta.
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