Carles Puigdemont is a fugitive Catalan separatist leader and former regional president who fled abroad after Spain's failed 2017 secession crisis. His party's parliamentary support was crucial to Pedro Sánchez's minority government, which negotiated a controversial amnesty for Catalan separatists in return for that backing.
In June 2025 Spain's constitutional tribunal endorsed the amnesty law, but the Supreme Court ruled that a charge of misuse of public funds against Puigdemont is not covered by it. The issue will now go to the constitutional tribunal. For the separatists Puigdemont remains a symbol, but it is hard to see him returning as an effective leader; the independence movement's leaders are widely considered discredited.
diplomacy, n: Lying in state.