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00:00Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has returned to Barcelona after seven years
00:04in self-imposed exile. He's back in Spain despite a pending arrest warrant. The charges
00:09related to the failed independence bid back in 2017. Now, for more on all of this, we
00:15can go across to France 24, Sarah Morris, standing by in Madrid. Sarah, good morning.
00:21Why is Puigdemont back now?
00:25He has essentially come back to try to scupper the formation of a socialist government in
00:32Catalonia and Salvador Illa, at the moment, all eyes are on the Barcelona parliament where
00:39Salvador Illa has a majority, he thinks. He thinks he can, as the winner of the elections,
00:46he got the most seats, the most votes, and he struck a deal with the left-wing separatist
00:53Republicana and with the left-wing group SUMAR, and he thinks that that means that he can
01:00finally form a government today at the investiture session in the Barcelona parliament. And now,
01:08Carles Puigdemont was the number two party in those elections. He led the group together
01:15for Catalonia Junts, and essentially, he says he's got the right to be in the speech today,
01:22the speeches and the debates in the Barcelona parliament, and he will be saying that he
01:27should be the president. He'll be putting the maximum pressure on the left-wing separatists
01:34to back him, even though there is no majority, no separatist majority, he couldn't form a
01:41government, but he's back. It seems to blow up the possibility of one being formed, and
01:48that despite his deals with the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, a man who's
01:54made many concessions to Carles Puigdemont, including granting him an amnesty that could
02:02exonerate him for allegations that he faces for that independence bid. Allegations, however,
02:09that two judges say are not covered by that amnesty, and that, of course, is the reason
02:17why he currently faces arrest if the police can find him today. And since giving a speech
02:26outside the Catalan parliament, most of the media have lost trace of Carles Puigdemont.
02:33Hundreds of supporters were surrounding him, and nobody can see where he has gone at the
02:40moment, whether he's inside the Barcelona parliament or whether he has gone somewhere
02:46else to hide. Sarah, you mentioned this amnesty that was in place for many of the organisers of
02:54this independence bid back in 2017. Is Puigdemont part of this?
03:01His lawyer would say yes, he is, and the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, expected him to be
03:08part of that amnesty as well. It was supposed to cover all action to break the north-eastern
03:15region away from Spain in the run-up to that October 2017 referendum, and any action right
03:24up to 2021, and so it was as wide as possible. But one Barcelona judge would like to investigate
03:33Carles Puigdemont for links that his close team had to Russian diplomats close to Vladimir Putin,
03:41and a second one considers that some of the charges for embezzlement
03:46are excluded from that amnesty.
03:48Sarah, thank you very much for that. Sarah Morris reporting there for us.