MADRID (Reuters) – Barcelona braced on Thursday for the anticipated return of former Catalan separatist chief Carles Puigdemont from self-imposed exile, because the controversial politician is prone to be detained over an impressive arrest warrant for alleged embezzlement.

On Wednesday, Puigdemont introduced he had began his “return trip from exile”, saying he remained dedicated to attending Thursday’s session of the Catalan parliament to swear within the area’s new chief following an election in Might, during which Puigdemont’s social gathering completed second.

“That in order to do so I would risk an arbitrary and illegal detention is evidence of the democratic anomaly that we have a duty to denounce and fight against,” he stated in a video posted on social media.

The constructing in central Barcelona housing the regional parliament was fenced off and surrounded by officers of the Catalan police power, the Mossos d’Esquadra.

It stays unclear how, or if, Puigdemont plans to entry the parliament earlier than being arrested.

Puigdemont, 61, a former journalist, fled to Belgium seven years in the past after a failed secession bid and has been residing in exile ever since.

His hardline pro-independence social gathering Junts has referred to as on supporters to offer Puigdemont a mass welcome on the close by Arc de Triomf monument, the place a stage with TV screens has been set up. Different Catalan separatist events and civil society teams stated they’d additionally attend.

Far-right Vox was set to carry a counter-protest exterior the parliament. Its secretary common, Ignacio Garriga, stated on X that “we will not tolerate the humiliation of seeing a criminal and fugitive from justice enter parliament”.

The vote to speculate Socialist Salvador Illa, who will likely be backed by the left-wing separatist ERC social gathering after a bilateral deal final week, is slated to kick off at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT).

The Spanish parliament handed an amnesty regulation in Might pardoning these concerned within the failed 2017 secession bid, however the Supreme Courtroom upheld arrest warrants for Puigdemont and two others who had been additionally charged with embezzlement, ruling that the amnesty regulation doesn’t apply to them.

The court docket stated the three obtained private achieve by charging the bills of holding the independence referendum deemed unlawful by the Spanish judiciary to the regional treasury, a transfer he described as not being within the public curiosity.

Puigdemont insists the referendum was not unlawful and so the costs linked to it haven’t any foundation.