Police search for Puigdemont after leading Barcelona rally in surprise return to Spain
The separatist former president of Catalonia returned to his home country in a bid to prevent the Catalan parliament from voting in a new socialist government, in what he described as "the only way to return to normality".
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00:00The former separatist leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, has returned to Spain after
00:06fleeing nearly seven years ago.
00:09He says he's returned to Barcelona to campaign against socialist Salvador Illa's bid to be
00:15regional president, which would bring an end to 14 years of separatist-led governments.
00:23Addressing the crowd, Puigdemont accused the Spanish authorities of a crackdown on the
00:28Catalan separatist movement.
00:31Puigdemont left Spain to avoid arrest after he organised an illegal independence referendum
00:37in an attempt to break Catalonia away from the rest of the country.
00:42He has now left his self-imposed exile in Brussels and faces pre-trial detention in
00:47Spain for embezzlement of public funds.
00:52Although a contentious amnesty bill for separatist supporters involved in the illegal 2017 ballot
00:58was passed by Spain's parliament earlier this year, the Supreme Court has refused to apply
01:03the law to Puigdemont and two other former regional ministers.