Police have launched a manhunt in Barcelona for ex-Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says he plans to return to his country on Thursday despite the likelihood of being arrested on his return.

Spain’s lower house of parliament has given final approval to a contentious amnesty law for hundreds of Catalan separatists involved in the illegal and unsuccessful 2017 secession bid.

Spain’s ruling Socialist party scored a crucial victory in regional elections in the powerful northeastern region of Catalonia, garnering the most seats and dealing a blow to the region’s two main separatist parties that have governed for decades.

Separatist parties are in danger of losing their decade-long hold of power in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia.

About 6 million Catalans are called to cast ballots in regional elections on Sunday that will surely have reverberations in Spain's national politics.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has kept his part of a bargain struck last year with Catalonia’s separatists to keep him in power by pushing through a divisive amnesty bill.

The regional president of Catalonia has called an early election for May 12 after his minority government failed to pass a budget for Spain’s wealthy northeast region that includes Barcelona.

Catalan separatist lawmakers have dealt Spain’s government a blow by voting against a hugely divisive amnesty law that was aimed at helping hundreds of their supporters involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 independence bid.

Spain’s acting Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has won a parliamentary vote to form a new leftist coalition government.

Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has defended his controversial amnesty deal for Catalonia’s separatists in parliament.

Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s chances of forming a new coalition minority government following an inconclusive election in July have been greatly boosted by a deal with a tiny party he surely hoped he would never have to rely on.

Spain’s Socialist Party has struck a deal with a fringe Catalan separatist party to grant an amnesty for potentially thousands of people involved in the region’s failed secession bid in exchange for its key backing of acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new government.

Thousands of ordinary citizens got into legal trouble for their parts in Catalonia’s illegal independence bid that brought Spain to the brink of rupture six years ago.

Spain’s newly elected Parliament has voted by a majority to elect a Socialist candidate as chamber speaker, breathing some life into acting Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez´s aspirations to form another leftist government.

Ballots from Spaniards living abroad gave a new twist to the inconclusive results from the general election.

Nearly six years ago, the leader of Catalonia’s failed secession bid slipped secretly across the Spanish border to escape arrest and start a life as a self-styled political exile.

The European Union's top court has issued a ruling that allows Spain to make another attempt to seek the extradition of a former Catalan separatist politician living in Brussels.

A Spanish judge has dropped sedition charges against former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont for his role in the region’s illegal secession push in 2017 that brought Spain’s most serious political crisis for decades.

Spain's coalition government has presented a proposal in Parliament to reform the centuries-old crime of sedition for one of public disorder which would carry lower sentences.

Catalan separatist politicians and activists are launching a legal offensive in half a dozen countries against the Spanish state and the Israeli companies behind the controversial spyware allegedly used to snoop on them.

Catalonia’s former separatist leader has walked out of a Sardinian courthouse victoriously after a judge delayed a decision on Spain’s extradition request and said he was free to travel.

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has taken a leisurely walk Saturday in Sardinia a day after a judge freed him from jail on the Italian island pending a hearing on his extradition to Spain to face sedition charges.

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has been released from a jail in Sardinia after a judge ruled that he could go free ahead of an Oct. 4 extradition hearing.

The lawyer for Carles Puigdemont says the former Catalan leader has been detained in Sardinia, Italy.

The leader of Catalonia in northeastern Spain has announced that it’s excluding a separatist party in his ruling regional coalition from talks with the central government aimed at solving the tensions over the growing pro-independence sentiment.

Spain’s government has granted pardons to nine instigators of an illegal 2017 secession bid for Catalonia.

Thousands of people attending a demonstration have called for Spain's government to resign over its plan to issue pardons to a dozen separatist leaders who were convicted for a 2017 attempt to carve out an independent Catalan state.

Former Catalan government member Meritxell Serret handed herself into Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday March 11, 2021, three years after she fled to Belgium. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, File)BARCELONA – Former Catalan government member Meritxell Serret handed herself into Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday, three years after she fled to Belgium along with other associates who led Catalonia’s failed secession attempt. When Puigdemont fled Spain in October 2017 he was accompanied by Serret and six other members of the Catalan regional government, which was disbanded by Spain’s central authorities when their independence bid collapsed. She said that she intended to take the seat in the Catalan regional legislature she won in an election earlier this year. Puigdemont refused to return to Spain on claims that he could not get a fair trial.

Member of European Parliament Carles Puigdemont prepares for an interview at the European Parliament in Brussels, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. In the decision on Puigdemont, 400 legislators voted for the waiver of immunity, 248 were against and 45 abstained. The measures to lift the immunity of his associates — former Catalan Health Minister Toni Comín and former regional Education Minister Clara Ponsatí — were by largely similar margins. Ad“We have lost our immunity, but the European Parliament has lost more than that. In 2019, Puigdemont and his two associates won seats in the European Parliament and were afforded protection as members of the EU assembly.

FILE - In this Monday Jan. 13, 2020 file photo, Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont reacts during a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. On Monday March 8, 2021, Puigdemont, along with cohorts Toni Comn and Clara Ponsat, face a vote by the European Parliament to lift their immunity as lawmakers as has been recommended by the parliaments Legal Affairs Committee. In 2019, he, former Catalan health minister Toni Comin and former regional education minister Clara Ponsati won seats in the European Parliament and were afforded protection in their positions as members of the EU assembly. The process is common — around 60 such demands to lift the immunity of various lawmakers were made during the 2014-2019 parliamentary term. AdThe independence vote in favor of Catalonia breaking away won by a landslide in 2017.

FILE - In this Monday Jan. 13, 2020 file photo, Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont reacts during a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)BARCELONA – Catalonia’s former regional President Carles Puigdemont has vowed to keep fighting extradition back to Spain if the European Union’s parliament strips him of his immunity as a lawmaker this week. Puigdemont and two fellow Catalan separatists won seats in the European Parliament in 2019, two years after fleeing Spain because they had led a failed secession attempt for Catalonia, which Spain considered illegal. After issuing a declaration of independence that did not have any practical effect, Puigdemont fled Spain for Brussels before prosecutors could issue an arrest warrant. Ad“In Spain, the courts are not free of political interests,” he said.

Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) candidate in the upcoming Catalan elections Salvador Illa, reads notes ahead of an interview at his party headquarter in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. A former health minister of Spain hopes to become a quiet political disruptor in the country's Catalonia region when voters go to the polls next weekend. “The solution of Illa is amnesia,” said Pere Aragonès, the acting regional president of Catalonia and the leading candidate from the pro-secession Republican Left of Catalonia party. “That is not true, because we have seen how different countries have had to work together during the pandemic,” Illa said. In Germany, Health Minister Jens Spahn has fared well thanks to the country’s comparatively successful initial effort to curb infections.

A man holding an "estelada" or independence flag waits for a protest to condemn a police raid on Catalan separatists in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. Spanish officials say that police have arrested 21 individuals with links to the Catalan separatist movement on suspicion of corruption and promoting public disorder. The Catalan separatist movement has always proclaimed non-violent beliefs, even though last year there were violent clashes with police after several top leaders were sentenced to prison for their roles in the 2017 breakaway bid. The Spanish government had accused Russia in 2017 of meddling in the Catalan conflict, a charge that Russian officials denied then. Another detainee, Oriol Soler, is a publisher who is considered one of the top strategists of the separatist movement.

Josu Urrutikoetxea, a former leader of Basque separatist militant group ETA, speaks in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. Just because he oversaw ETA’s end in 2018, they stress, that doesn’t erase his past. Survivors of violent attacks and relatives of ETA’s victims say the campaign humiliates them. ETA’s cause was politically and socially divisive inside Spain’s Basque society and widely rejected across the rest of Spain. What I do want is to see him taking the stand in court,” she said, standing at the site of ETA's attack on the Civil Guard.

Nine Catalan independence leaders have received lengthy prison sentences of between nine and 13 years for their part in a failed 2017 attempt to split from Spain, but were acquitted of the most serious charge against them. Three other defendants were found guilty of disobedience, fined and banned from public office for 20 months. He was handed 13 years in prison and banned from holding public office for 13 years after being found guilty of sedition and misuse of public funds. Prime Minister Sanchez told reporters that the Spanish government had "absolute respect for and adherence to" the Supreme Court's ruling. Three others -- Santiago Vila, Meritxell Borras and Carles Mundo -- were found guilty of disobedience, fined and banned from public office for 20 months.