Puigdemont was elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019 and to the Catalan parliament in 2024 as chief of the area’s centre-right Together for Catalonia (JxCat) occasion.

He had campaigned in the south of France, where he held rallies attended by supporters who travelled across the border to see him.

Puigdemont is recognized to have made at least one temporary return to Spain since leaving the nation, addressing a crowd of supporters in Barcelona prior to disappearing and escaping back over the border to France before he could be detained.

While he was dwelling in Waterloo, Belgium, 9 of his former colleagues were jailed for their function in the occasions of 2017. They were launched when the Spanish authorities pardoned them in 2021.

Puigdemont has remained an lively political presence, travelling across Europe to espouse the Catalan independence cause and fiercely criticising Spain’s democratic establishments.

In a video posted on social media just as the Supreme Court ruling was announced, Puigdemont spoke of his causes for staying overseas.

“My role was to stir public opinion, internationalise the conflict and work from the heart of Europe to explain the reality of Spain,” he said.

It is still not recognized when he might return to Spain.

Comín, his former regional minister for well being, plans to journey this week to Madrid, where he is due to carry out administrative procedures linked to his standing as an MEP.

The referendum sparked the nation’s greatest political disaster since democracy was restored following the loss of life of Francisco Franco.

The banned vote was met with a heavy police crackdown. The area’s separatist majority declared independence after the vote – Madrid then dissolved parliament, sacked its leaders and called a snap election.

But Catalan independence is now a comparatively marginal subject in Spain, with housing and immigration dominating the political agenda.

The parliamentary support of Puigdemont’s JxCat occasion was instrumental in permitting present Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to kind a new left-wing Spanish authorities after the 2023 election.

But within Catalonia, JxCat has been struggling, with a far-right, pro-independence occasion, Catalan Alliance, taking many of its voters.

And next month, Spain’s normal election could see the far proper enter authorities for the first time.