SPAIN-CATALONIA-POLITICS-PARLIAMENT

Catalonia's exiled separatist leader Carles Puigdemont gestures on stage as his hardline separatist JxCAT party has scheduled a welcome ceremony, ahead of an investiture vote at the Parliament of Catalonia, in Barcelona on August 8, 2024. Catalonia's parliament is set to elect a new leader for the Spanish region, but the planned return of exiled separatist leader Carles Puigdemont even though he faces arrest threatens to derail the event. After months of negotiations following an inconclusive May regional election, the leader of the local branch of Spain's ruling Socialists Salvador Illa is poised to become Catalonia's new leader. But the vote could be upended if Puigdemont -- who fled to Belgium shortly after Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid to avoid prosecution -- returns to Spain and is arrested. (Photo by Cesar Manso / AFP) (Photo by CESAR MANSO/AFP via Getty Images)