Spain’s Supreme Court has ruled the former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, can return without fear of arrest nearly a decade after going into self-imposed exile having led a failed independence bid.

The court upheld a decision to lift an arrest warrant for him linked to the referendum his regional government organised in 2017, in defiance of Madrid.

Direct rule was imposed on the region soon after the vote and Puigdemont fled to Belgium, where he has been based ever since – with a surprise appearance in Barcelona in 2024 prompting a police manhunt.

But the Spain to which he may return is much different from a decade ago, with Catalan independence now a marginal political issue.

Monday’s ruling brings to an end a lengthy legal wrangle between the Spanish judiciary and the former Catalan president.

In 2024, Spain’s socialist government introduced a controversial amnesty for dozens of Catalan politicians and activists who were involved in the secession drive, but the Supreme Court said Puigdemont and several of his colleagues should be excluded.

It argued this was because of the charges against them of alleged financial crimes around staging the referendum.

The Constitutional Court overruled that interpretation earlier this month, and on Monday the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the far-right Vox party against lifting national arrest warrants for Puigdemont, as well as his former ministers Lluís Puig and Toni Comín, paving the way for their return to Spain.

Puigdemont was elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019 and to the Catalan parliament in 2024 as leader of the region’s centre-right Together for Catalonia (JxCat) party.

He had campaigned in the south of France, where he held rallies attended by supporters who travelled across the border to see him.

Puigdemont is known to have made at least one brief return to Spain since leaving the country, addressing a crowd of supporters in Barcelona prior to disappearing and escaping back over the border to France before he could be detained.

While he was living in Waterloo, Belgium, nine of his former colleagues were jailed for their role in the events of 2017. They were released when the Spanish government pardoned them in 2021.

Puigdemont has remained an active political presence, travelling across Europe to espouse the Catalan independence cause and fiercely criticising Spain’s democratic institutions.

In a video posted on social media just as the Supreme Court ruling was announced, Puigdemont spoke of his reasons for staying abroad.

“My role was to stir public opinion, internationalise the conflict and work from the heart of Europe to explain the reality of Spain,” he said.

It is still not known when he might return to Spain.

Comín, his former regional minister for health, plans to travel this week to Madrid, where he is due to carry out administrative procedures linked to his status as an MEP.

The referendum sparked the country’s biggest political crisis since democracy was restored following the death of Francisco Franco.

The banned vote was met with a heavy police crackdown. The region’s separatist majority declared independence after the vote – Madrid then dissolved parliament, sacked its leaders and called a snap election.

But Catalan independence is now a relatively marginal issue in Spain, with housing and immigration dominating the political agenda.

The parliamentary support of Puigdemont’s JxCat party was instrumental in allowing current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new left-wing Spanish government after the 2023 election.

But within Catalonia, JxCat has been struggling, with a far-right, pro-independence party, Catalan Alliance, taking many of its voters.

And next month, Spain’s general election could see the far right enter government for the first time.