Puigdemont's perks on his return to Spain: €70,385, a driver, bodyguards and three aides

Law 6/2003 on the Statute of former presidents of the Generalitat guarantees Carles Puigdemont, when he retires, a lifetime allowance of 60% of the sitting president's salary, which for him would amount to €70,385.20 a month. On top of that come an official car with driver, bodyguards, an office and three hand-picked aides paid for out of the public budget.

There is a 2003 law that almost nobody read at the time and that is back in the spotlight. Law 6/2003, the Statute of former presidents of the Generalitat, regulates what anyone who has held the presidency of the Catalan government receives. Carles Puigdemont qualifies: he was in office for just under two years, between January 2016 and October 2017. And that is enough. The Statute sets no minimum tenure and makes no distinction between those who left through the door and those who left through the window.

The law grants him a series of benefits that kick in when he returns to Spain. His return is planned after the elections of 29 November, according to his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, who is waiting for the Supreme Court to fully close the case still open against him. Judge Pablo Llarena already lifted the arrest warrant after the Constitutional Court upheld the amnesty approved with the votes of Junts for Pedro Sánchez's investiture.

## From €117,308 a year to €70,385 a month

The first figure to pin down is the salary. On leaving the presidency, the Statute grants the former president **€117,308.67** a year. That amount equals **80%** of the salary of the sitting president, Salvador Illa, so every pay rise for the office also drags up those of former presidents. Puigdemont gave up that amount at the time because his salary as a Member of the European Parliament suited him better and the two are incompatible. By law, that renunciation would bar him from reclaiming it, although the Generalitat does not clarify whether any loophole exists that would allow it.

The jump comes with retirement. He is just over a year away from turning **65**. From that moment, the allowance rises to **60%** of what the sitting president earns, but with a notable advantage: the time he spent leading the government no longer counts, and the salary becomes a lifetime payment until his death. The resulting figure is **€70,385.20 a month**. For context, the maximum pension in the Spanish system is set at **€47,034.40 gross a year**. In other words, his monthly allowance exceeds that maximum annual pension.

It remains to be seen whether he could take early retirement now on those same terms, since his age would allow it. It is also unclear what will happen with his seat in the Parlament, which he has already said he will give up, or with his role at the head of Junts, a debate that will reopen once he lives in Catalonia again.

## A car, bodyguards and a duplex in Barcelona

The perks do not end with the payroll. The Statute also provides, for life, an official car from the Generalitat's fleet, renewed periodically and with a driver. Added to that is a security detail that accompanies the former president day to day, both at institutional events and on personal trips.

The Generalitat also provides all former presidents with an office, a budget to run it and staff members each one can hand-pick, with salaries paid from the public budget. In Puigdemont's case, that is **three people**. In recent days he has begun moving his office to a duplex that the regional Ministry of the Presidency has arranged for him in one of Barcelona's wealthiest districts.

There is a fourth element, harder to quantify but with protocol weight: Puigdemont will keep his status as former president, with the style and precedence that entails at official events. For a figure who still provokes rejection across much of Spain for the role he played in 2017, that recognition is no small matter.

## A return without a balcony and with its own script

The return has been carefully choreographed. In Junts they are preparing a welcome "in the style of Josep Tarradellas", referring to the Catalan former president's return in 1977 and his famous "Ja sóc aquí" ("I am here at last") from the balcony of the Palau de la Generalitat. The difference is that Puigdemont will not be able to step out onto that balcony: the building is now in the hands of the PSC. The epicentre envisaged by his circle is the **Parc de la Ciutadella**, specifically the Parlament, the last institutional venue where he was seen before leaving Catalonia. There he proclaimed the short-lived Catalan Republic and there, according to his circle, "he was left wanting to give a speech". That wish is still alive after being unable to do so on the day of Salvador Illa's investiture.

The timing is no accident. His lawyer announced that the return will not happen until after the elections of **29 November**. In Junts they admit that Puigdemont remains their main electoral asset, but they accept that his return during the campaign would distort the debate and could benefit Sánchez. The solemnity, therefore, will have to wait until the ballot boxes have spoken.

Puigdemont is marking **nine years** in Waterloo, the Belgian town he chose for his self-imposed exile. He will return without having answered to justice for the 2017 institutional challenge, unlike other political leaders in the same situation. And he will do so with a law from more than two decades ago underwriting his salary, his car and his office. It is not an exception: the Statute is what it is and applies to anyone who has held the office. The uncomfortable question is not whether he is entitled to it, but whether it makes sense for the law to be written this way. That is another debate, and it is not settled with a figure.