Puigdemont remains in the same position a year after his brief return to Barcelona.

Thus, Puigdemont's situation today is the same as it was a year ago, although he has now regained the presidency of Junts after last fall's congress . The former president is still waiting for the Amnesty Law to be applied to him and for the Constitutional Court to rule on his particular case. In a first ruling in June, the judicial body, divided, declared that the law complies with the law . However, it has not ruled on the appeals for protection by the pro-independence leaders who have not benefited: Puigdemont, Lluís Puig, and Toni Comín.

In the first plenary session in September, the Constitutional Court will make a decision on the precautionary measures requested, including the national arrest warrant against them , before ruling on the appeal. If this warrant is revoked, as demanded by the pro-independence leaders, they could return to Spain without being arrested. If the judges do not rule in their favor, there is another option: European justice.

Thus, everything seems to indicate that in the coming months the unknowns will be cleared up and that the future of the JxCat leader will finally become clearer. Therefore, his party is beginning to debate what role the former president should play if he returns. During the March 12 campaign, it was assumed that he would not occupy the position of leader of the opposition, a position vacant in this term , which the post-Convergents, for the time being, are renouncing. There are voices that believe that, if necessary, he will not be in Parliament and may have another role. In any case, nothing is firm.

Today, Junts maintains that their leader's brief return a year ago demonstrated the lack of "institutional or democratic normality," a mantra that party spokespersons have been repeating for months. "There was an amnesty law in force, and yet they were going to arrest him, and today everything remains the same ," maintain sources consulted, adding that now, with hindsight, it has become clear that the decision to return to Waterloo was the right one. "All this time, he would have been in prison, even if the amnesty had been approved," these sources assert.

The truth is that Puigdemont's maneuver also provoked criticism from some sectors of his party, who regret that the former president left the Catalan police , the Mossos d'Esquadra, in a bad light, having gained great prestige with their actions during the 2017 attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.

In the weeks leading up to August 8, Puigdemont, beyond promising his return, had stated that he would not allow himself to be arrested easily—although it was assumed that was his destiny —and this was made clear on TV3 on August 6 by the secretary general of JxCat, Jordi Turull . During the campaign, he had also asserted that he was not tempted to play a prank and that it had not occurred to him to enter Catalonia, take a photo, and leave. Entering without being intercepted was not a problem, as was seen last year. Therefore, after the criticism received by the Mossos d'Esquadra for not arresting him, some within JxCat condemned Puigdemont's maneuver .

The option of returning to Waterloo had been considered in the days leading up to the elections, and was finally confirmed when it became clear that the former president would not even set foot in the Parliament . This decision was also influenced by the fact that the Catalonia of 2025 will not be the same as that of 2017 and the years following. The mobilization of the now disunited independence movement is not at its best.

Considering all these factors, sources consulted maintain that the decision to escape and return to Belgium was the best one. "In the current context, the time spent in prison wouldn't have made any sense," these sources point out, while lamenting the criticism leveled at the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) for the operation mounted that day. "The blame is placed on the Mossos, but the intelligence services monitoring Puigdemont's every movement failed to detect that he had left Waterloo and that he was in Barcelona for two days," Junts emphasized.

A source consulted also emphasizes that criticism should be directed at the political leadership of the Interior Ministry—former minister Joan Ignasi Elena, former Mossos d'Esquadra chief Eduard Sallent, and former director general of the police, Pere Ferrer. "The leadership was exposed," this source adds. "Everyone had the responsibility to arrest him if there was an order; it's not exclusive to the Mossos d'Esquadra, and there were more bodies at Arc de Triomf," he concludes.

The return of Carles Puigdemont last year has had, to date, consequences for three Mossos d'Esquadra officers, accused of collaborating with the former president. Beyond the criminal investigation, the Internal Affairs Division (DAI) had suspended them from employment and pay, but they are back on active duty pending a court ruling, according to sources from the Catalan police force of the Generalitat (Catalan government). In recent years, the security of the Junts leader, who despite being the former president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) does not have an escort as he is outside Spain, has been provided by members of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and other bodies such as firefighters, who volunteer for this role on their days off. Following the agreement between the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and JxCat (Catalan Workers' Party), which facilitated Pedro Sánchez's investiture in 2023, Puigdemont, a participant in the negotiations, returned to the spotlight. As a result, his security, according to reports from his office, was more threatened than usual. There were several letters sent to the Conselleria d'Interior , and the Ministry of the Interior was contacted to request permission for the former president to have bodyguards outside of Spain. The government, in several public statements, opened the door to this possibility , but ultimately gave up on the request of the post-Convergent leader , who had sent several threats to the Mossos d'Esquadra in the past without any consequences.