After nearly seven years on the run, exiled separatist Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has returned to Spain, flying in the face of a warrant out for his arrest. His return comes seven years after Catalonia’s unauthorised independence referendum, a vote that was not sanctioned by Spanish authorities and which attracted a notorious police crackdown. Not long after that incident, Puigdemont smuggled himself out of the country in the boot of a car to avoid arrest, setting himself up in Brussels as successive Spanish governments sought to have him extradited to stand trial. Earlier this week, Pui…