Even before Carles Puigdemont was due to appear before the court of appeal in Sassari, Italy, several hundred demonstrators blocked Diagonal Boulevard in Barcelona on Friday.

They shouted "Freedom" and "Puigdemont, our President".

On Thursday evening, the former regional president was arrested after landing in Sardinia - apparently to the surprise of the governments in Rome and Madrid.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called on the Catalan regional government on Friday not to be deterred and to continue the dialogue between Madrid and Barcelona that had only recently begun.

Hans-Christian Rößler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, based in Madrid.

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Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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Puigdemont has been on the run from the Spanish judiciary for 1425 days.

Now he has been arrested abroad for the third time: He spent one night in November 2017 in a prison in Brussels.

In March 2018 he was arrested in Germany while traveling from Denmark to Belgium.

He spent two weeks in Neumünster Prison before he was finally allowed to leave Germany in July.

In Sardinia, the court of appeal in Sassari released him without any conditions on Friday.

He is also allowed to leave Italy until his next trial on October 4th.

Italian media highlighted that Puigdemont's trip to Sardinia was long planned and widely known. There had been extensive reports on the agreed meetings with local representatives in Alghero at the traditional Sardinian-Catalan cultural festival and with the political leadership of the autonomous region of Sardinia. "He is confident that the case will be resolved as soon as possible and that he will be free again quickly," said Puigdemont's Italian lawyer Agostinangelo Marras. His lawyers seemed well prepared for the new situation, which sparked speculation about calculated action.

A European arrest warrant has been filed against Puigdemont for his involvement in the illegal independence referendum on October 1, 2017, requested by the Supreme Court in Madrid. First of all, the Italian judicial authorities have to clarify whether this arrest warrant can currently be executed and whether an extradition is compatible with national law. The focus is on the question of whether the Catalan is protected as a MEP by his parliamentary immunity.

In March, the European Parliament lifted its legal protection: According to a majority in the European Parliament, Puigdemont and two other fellow campaigners in Spain are charged with acts that date back to before their membership in the Strasbourg House.

In July, the European Court of Justice dismissed the appeal of Puigdemont and his former ministers Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí against the decision;

previously the ECJ had reactivated their immunity.

Puigdemont hardly plays a role in Spain's politics anymore

In the opinion of Puigdemont's lawyers, however, the Court of Justice only "suspended" the legal protection, but not completely lifted it. They wanted to apply to the ECJ to grant him immunity again as soon as possible. They also refer to a Spanish question about a possible extradition from Belgium, to which the European Court of Human Rights has not yet responded. According to Spanish press reports, the General Prosecutor's Office in Madrid had assured that the separatists wanted would not face arrest abroad as long as the legal issues were not finally resolved.

Earlier Spanish extradition requests for Catalan separatists had not been obeyed by courts in Belgium, Germany and Scotland because they did not recognize the initial charge of "rebellion". In 2019, Spain's Supreme Court ruled that the "episodes of violence" that occurred before and after the 2017 referendum were not serious enough to be convicted of rebellion.

Puigdemont no longer plays an important role in Catalan politics. In February, the rival ERC party won the regional election in Barcelona. From the “House of the Republic” in the Brussels suburb of Waterloo, the 58-year-old continues to campaign for the independence of Catalonia, but his influence is waning. He uses his freedom of movement to promote the Catalan cause abroad. Only a few days ago he had visited France without any problems. In sardines, Puigdemont wanted to meet regional president Christian Solinas and the president of the regional parliament, Michele Pais. Pais belongs to the right-wing national Lega of the former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. Regional President Salinas leads the conservative “Sardinian Action Party”, whose goal is the “sovereignty of the Sardinian nation”.