Puigdemont will spend Christmas in Girona after the general elections

Former president Carles Puigdemont plans to spend Christmas in Girona after the general elections. Meanwhile, the arrest warrant against him has been lifted.

The last weeks of Carles Puigdemont in Waterloo are about to come to an end, although there are still no boxes or moving trucks. According to Crónica Global, the former president of the Generalitat will spend Christmas in Girona, being the last of the fugitives to return.

Before that, the Parlament welcomed former councillor Lluís Puig last Wednesday, and MEP Toni Comín will cross the Spanish-French border on foot this Saturday after collecting his mandate in Madrid.

Puigdemont wants to wait until after the general elections on November 29. He does not want his arrival to be seen as a political gesture, but rather as an institutional return. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court still needs to extinguish his criminal liability, and does not rule out any last-minute procedural setbacks.

The arrest warrant has already been lifted, which has encouraged Comín and Puig. His lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, has advised him to wait, and the former president will remain in his chalet in Waterloo until then.

His home is in a residential neighbourhood on the outskirts of Brussels, with large gardens and little traffic. He previously lived in a more modest flat in Leuven, but he set up his operations centre in this house, where politicians from almost all parties have passed through, some in strict confidentiality.

Puigdemont writes long articles and shares impressions with those who visit him. His circle is asking for more personal than political memoirs about his nine years abroad, which he will publish, according to the source, when he retires.

In Junts, his leadership remains the main consensus, but he will not have the opportunity to act as the leader of the opposition in the Parlament. His colleagues have only warned him that there is much anger over immigration and that the trains are not working, a practical point to consider for his return to Girona at Christmas.