Fugitive former regional president, who organised illegal independence referendum, addressed crowd of thousands in Barcelona before disappearing
Catalonia 's exiled separatist leader Carles Puigdemont arrives as his JxCAT party has scheduled a welcome ceremony in Barcelona on Thursday.
Catalan regional police force Mossos d'Esquadra officers control cars at a road block on the Ronda Litoral in Barcelona as part of the search for Carles Puigdemont. Photograph: Manuare Quintero/AFP via Getty Unconfirmed reports on Catalan radio said Mr Puigdemont had made a pact with the police that if officers allowed him to speak at the Arc de Triomf, he would then surrender to them.
Mr Puigdemont’s party, which came second in the election, refused to support Mr Illa’s candidacy but he won the support of the rival separatist Republican Left party in exchange for offering Catalonia greater fiscal autonomy. At the investiture, Mr Illa praised his predecessor, Pere Aragonès, saying he had left Catalonia in better shape than he had found it. Adding that his preferred associates were Aragonès’ Republican Left party and the left-wing Catalunya en Comú, he said: “I have come here to construct, not to dismantle, and to make the most of my predecessor’s achievements.”
The Spanish government has not commented on Puigdemont’s reappearance and vanishing act, but the conservative People’s party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said Thursday’s events were “an unbearable humiliation”.
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