After his brief speech, Carles Puigdemont was whisked through the crowd in the direction of the parliament building, surrounded by members of his Together for Catalunya party.

When the group reached parliament a few minutes ago, Puigdemont was not among them.

A helicopter is now patrolling above the parliament building but there will be questions asked if he evades arrest and slips back to his base in the south of France.

Stephen Burgen reports from Barcelona this morning:

It’s not clear that anyone really expected him to appear but on the dot of nine o’clock there he was, just like he’d never been away.

There was already an air of nostalgia for the days when many of the people assembled here believed that independence was within their grasp. The slogans on the T-shirts recounted the 12 years of meetings and marches that in the end brought, not independence, but bitterness and division and now the first non-nationalist Catalan government in 20 years.

It was on this very spot in 2017 that Carles Puigdemont appeared on a giant screen to declare the republic, only to announce eight seconds later that the declaration had been suspended. For those eight seconds the separatists thought their dream had come true, but it was brief journey from ecstasy to disappointment.

But now their leader was back, right here in the flesh.

History has moved on but for a few minutes here time stood still.

Fugitive former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont has returned to Spain, addressing a crowd in Barcelona this morning.

I’ve come today to remind you that we’re still here.

Puigdemont is facing likely arrest.

Good morning and welcome back to the Europe blog.

Today we will be delving into the latest in Spain.

Stay tuned and send comments to lili.bayer@theguardian.com.