Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont returns to Belgium

Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont is back in the Belgian residence he uses during his self-imposed exile in Waterloo.

Puigdemont has been back in Belgium since Friday, according to Catalan media TV3 and ACN news agency.

The Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont recently set foot in Spain for the first time in seven years in a whirlwind appearance in Barcelona, despite an arrest warrant for him.

Puigdemont spoke to Spanish journalists from his Belgian residence on Saturday and said he “never intended” to surrender.

Rather, he said he wanted “to enter parliament to attend the session [of the investiture of the head of the Catalan executive] and to be able to exercise my right to speak and my right to vote”.

But a police presence in a nearby park prevented him from doing so, said Puigdemont, who claimed that the police were not there to prevent him from entering the parliament session.

Puigdemont nevertheless gave a several-minutes long speech from a podium in the park.

“In this context, attempting to gain access to parliament would have meant certain arrest and I would not have had the slightest opportunity to address the chamber, which was my objective,” said Puigdemont.

The exile said he then decided to flee “in a context of repression with total encirclement” in order to “reach my Belgian residence here in Waterloo”.

“It was necessary to denounce at the international level a Spanish state that does not behave democratically when it allows Supreme Court judges to make a mockery of the laws approved by its parliament,” Puigdemont said, referring to a law fiercely negotiated with the Spanish government that offers amnesty in exchange for pro-independence support in parliament. The amnesty does not currently apply to Puigdemont.