Self-exiled Catalan leader Puigdemont delays return to Spain

Spain's Supreme Court canceled an arrest warrant for former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont after the Constitutional Court ruled he's covered by a 2024 amnesty law passed under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Puigdemont has spent nearly nine years in self-imposed exile in Belgium since fleeing after Catalonia's illegal 2017 independence referendum, and he was reportedly seeking assurances he faces no arrest risk before returning.

The ruling lands amid early elections called for Nov. 29, following mass protests over housing costs and a fight over Sánchez's rent and eviction freeze, which Puigdemont's Junts party helped defeat alongside conservative parties. That vote effectively ended the governing arrangement in which Junts had backed Sánchez in exchange for the amnesty law.

Analysts say Puigdemont's return may matter more as campaign symbolism than substance, with one Spanish politics expert noting Catalan independence has receded as a live issue even among nationalists. Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called the amnesty 'yet another deception,' while Catalan president Salvador Illa, a Sánchez ally, said the ruling proves 'Catalonia is moving forward.'

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