Three floors and a still secret operation: this is how Puigdemont managed to escape on August 8.

Carles Puigdemont and Jordi Turull spent the 48 hours together while the former president was in Barcelona exactly one year ago. They did so without a cell phone and to this day remain publicly silent about what happened. Of an operation that ended successfully for its protagonists, thanks to discretion and secrecy, only what they wanted has been revealed .

The truth is that almost no one had complete information about how an action would be carried out in which the current vice president of JxCat, Antoni Castellà, also had a lot to do with, who was in charge of the logistics as well as the organization of the Arc de Triomf event in which the leader of Junts intervened from the stage, in full view of everyone, for a few minutes .

Two people left their apartment empty so the JxCat leader could hide there, and another acted as host.

Castellà is one of the people who had suggested to the post-Convergent leader that he not allow himself to be detained, when it seemed that this was the only fate that awaited him if he returned to Catalonia , something he had promised during the 12-M election campaign and from which it was difficult to go back.

The escape was an exercise in illusionism in which nothing was left to chance. So much so that while the police were only considering the option of having the former president attend Parliament—for Salvador Illa's investiture debate—arresting him and bringing him to justice before he even set foot inside the institution, those who orchestrated the break-in and escape had planned up to 14 different scenarios, some of which were improbable and surreal.

Several individuals outside of pro-independence organizations and political parties also participated in that operation, which bears parallels to what the independence movement carried out in October 2017 to smuggle ballot boxes from China into Catalonia. They played a key and decisive role.

Acquaintances and friends of the former president, in turn, consciously or unconsciously, were responsible for the diversionary maneuvers that caught the attention of the intelligence services. This was also the case with elected officials from JxCat, as well as former presidents Artur Mas and Quim Torra, who, along with the deputies, headed to the Catalan Parliament. They were supposed to be escorting Puigdemont. However, as soon as he left the stage, he jumped into a white Honda and fled the scene, unnoticed by almost everyone. Only two officers noticed what had happened, but there was little they could do.

The fact that that day remains shrouded in secrecy today is due to the fact that Barcelona's 24th Court of Instruction is still investigating three Mossos d'Esquadra officers accused of concealing the facts.

Read also

Be that as it may, a year later, it is known that the former president arrived in Barcelona on the night of August 6th from Waterloo, that Turull joined him in the south of France, and that it was there that he left him on the evening of the 8th. The secretary general of JxCat slept there. Puigdemont, however, continued on to Belgium.

On August 6, the former president had left his home in Waterloo early in the morning and went to a nearby supermarket to do some shopping. Nothing unusual. He paid and returned to the parking lot. There, a double swapped places for him, and he returned home in his own vehicle. A media outlet captured both the departure and return of Puigdemont's car, but in reality, the leader was already on his way to Barcelona, where he spent two nights unnoticed in an apartment located less than 500 meters from the Arc de Triomf. The tenant acted as host. Both he and Turull spent the 7th there without leaving the house and without receiving any visitors. From there, they set off on foot to the stage where he gave his speech.

Read also Puigdemont remains in the same position a year after his brief return to Barcelona. Iñaki Pardo Torregrosa

The former president then crossed a tent and boarded the aforementioned car to a secure apartment, from where he later drove to another one. Once the cage operation launched by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) to arrest him was deactivated, Puigdemont and Turull headed north. On the 9th, the former president returned to square one, Waterloo , from which he had managed to escape three days earlier without being detected by the intelligence services.

Yesterday, the secretary general of JxCat recalled the day as "one of the most intense days with Puigdemont." "The vigilantes in togas, and their collaborators and loudspeakers, were salivating at the thought of the president in jail. Repression never took a holiday, and neither did confrontation against it. Once again, the State's repressive apparatus was left looking foolish," Turull added in a message on the social network X.