On Wednesday, 21 October 2026, the former Catalan culture minister Lluís Puig Gordi returned to Catalonia, nine years after leaving Spain to avoid arrest over 1-O. El País writes that he reappears in Terrassa, his home town, and that on Thursday he will take his seat in the Parlament. This is not Carles Puigdemont’s return, and it is not Toni Comín’s Thursday route through Madrid.

RAC1, citing ACN, says Puig is already in Catalonia. On Tuesday, on 3Cat, he had said he would come today: “Ha arribat el moment.” Judge Pablo Llarena lifted the arrest warrants for him, for Comín and for Puigdemont. The Supreme Court confirmed that on Monday, dismissed Vox’s appeal and applied the Constitutional Court’s doctrine on amnesty for embezzlement, from the Dolors Bassa ruling. RAC1 notes that Puig did not wait for the Supreme Court to amnesty him personally. Lifting a warrant is not a verdict of guilt or acquittal.

On Wednesday afternoon he is at Cants per la Llibertat, outside Terrassa town hall, “the little land where I was born and lived until nine years ago.” A Junts delegation goes with him, including secretary-general Jordi Turull, Parlament speaker Josep Rull, vice-presidents Miriam Nogueras, Antoni Castellà, Mònica Sales and Josep Rius, and spokesman Salvador Vergés. Europa Press recalls that Puig has admitted discreet visits to Ripollès, Garrotxa and Empordà over the years. Wednesday’s return is public; it is not necessarily the first step on Catalan soil.

On Thursday, from 15:00, Rull will wait for him at the Parlament door and give him the floor. The house is in plenary from Tuesday to Thursday. Puig is a Junts deputy; until now he voted by proxy. From Thursday he can sit in the chamber. Rull said the return has a weight the Parlament cannot ignore, but that Puigdemont remains “the president in exile.”

That same Thursday, Comín is due in Madrid to swear the Constitution and collect his MEP credentials. Then, RAC1 says, he goes back to Brussels and on Sunday would walk into Catalonia at Portbou. Puigdemont, Europa Press writes, is expected after the general election of 29 November. Three calendars, not one.

Puig was culture minister for only a few months in 2017. El País dates him Terrassa, 1959. Neither Thursday’s plenary nor the Terrassa gathering closes any remaining criminal instruction, and neither brings Puigdemont home today.

Image: Palau del Parlament de Catalunya, Ciutadella park, Barcelona, 16 June 2021, Enric, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The palace in 2021, not Thursday’s plenary.

Sources consulted: El exconsejero Lluís Puig regresa a Cataluña después de nueve años — El País; Lluís Puig torna avui a Catalunya després de 9 anys d'exili i demà serà al Parlament — RAC1; Lluís Puig (Junts) vuelve este miércoles a Catalunya y asistirá el jueves al pleno del Parlament — Europa Press.