President Salvador Illa and Carles Puigdemont meet in Brussels for first time

Catalan president Salvador Illa and former head of executive Carles Puigdemont met for the first time in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon. This is the first meeting between both leaders since Illa took office in August 2024.

Puigdemont currently lives in Belgium since leaving Spain back in October 2017 following the independence referendum deemed illegal by Spain.

The meeting took place at the Catalan governmental delegation to the EU in the Belgian capital and happened eight years after Puigdemont moved from Catalonia to the northern country. Both leaders met for an hour and a half before both leaving with their respective cars. 

"Moving forward"

Following the meeting, President Illa shared a post on social media.

"Today I met with President Carles Puigdemont, just as I have with the other former Catalan presidents," he said.

"Dialogue is the engine of democracy so that Catalonia can continue moving forward. Today we are setting a good example of that."

Puigdemont also posted on X, saying: "This afternoon I was received by President Salvador Illa at the Catalan government delegation to the European Union. I thank him for his kindness and the conversation."

"In a situation of democratic normality, this meeting should have taken place many months ago, and not in Brussels, but at the Palau de la Generalitat, in the capital of Catalonia."

"Today it has once again become clear that we are not living in a situation of normality," Puigdemont concluded.

Members of both leaders' teams had been preparing the agenda for the meeting during the summer holidays. The meeting started at 4:15 pm and happened a year after Illa met with former presidents Artur Mas, Jordi Pujol, and José Montilla, to name a few as part of the "political normalization."

Meanwhile, the pro-independence Junts party, whose leader is Puigdemont, had said that Illa was "late" in requesting the meeting. Junts now awaits the Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, to schedule a gathering with Puigdemont.

The meeting was announced on Monday morning, with Illa saying that it was "the time" to meet up.

Puigdemont awaits Spain's Constitutional Court's ruling on his amnesty, which would allow him to return to Spain without facing arrest.

Both leaders met up ahead of a political year which will be heavily marked by the court's decision on the amnesty law after ruling it was constitutional back in June. In the months ahead, Illa's Socialist cabinet and Sánchez's coalition government will need the support of several political parties to pass their respective 2026 budgets.