Carles Puigdemont, the former president of the Generalitat and current leader of Junts, says he will seek a direct understanding of present-day Catalunya if he can return from exile, nine years after leaving for Belgium.
For residents, the proposal does not yet mean that any visit, public event or route has been scheduled. Puigdemont said his return itself was still uncertain, and gave no dates or locations for the possible tour.
“I want to immerse myself in it and listen to it,” Puigdemont said in an interview with The Sunday Times, as reported on Sunday by Diari de Girona.
He described the planned “immersion in reality” as an attempt to experience Catalunya first-hand again: to travel through the country, listen to people and regain a sense of how it has changed since his departure. He said he wanted to “touch, feel and smell” the country again.
Return remains uncertain
Puigdemont said “Catalunya is not the same” as when he left nine years ago. He said he had envisaged two or three possible scenarios for his first steps after a return, without setting out what they were.
According to the interview, he was prepared to spend the rest of his life in exile when he moved to Belgium and said he remained prepared for that possibility.
No timetable for a return to Catalunya or itinerary for the proposed tour was included in the report.
Reported by Diari de Girona, El Món, VilaWeb, Nació Digital, La Ciutat, Diari de Tarragona, Racó Català.
