The controversial figure fled abroad in 2017 to avoid prosecution over a botched independence bid that year, and has since been wanted by the Spanish justice system.
Puigdemont risks being arrested if he returns to Spain, where he has been charged with terrorism, embezzlement and high treason.
Puigdemont said Saturday that returning to Spain “is what I committed to do and it is what we’re going to do”.
This was his first public address since the Spanish Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that an amnesty law for Catalan separatists would not apply to him.
READ ALSO: Several Catalan separatists return to Spain after amnesty
“My obligation is to go to the (Catalan) Parliament if there is a nomination debate. I will be there,” he told a rally of his Together for Catalonia party in southwestern France near the border with Spain.
Puigdemont said he hoped that if he returned, “the authorities would avoid what would be an illegal detention, an arbitrary detention”.
The politician, who was Catalonia’s regional president at the time of the failed secession, would have been the best-known beneficiary of the new law. Legal action against several other separatists has already been dropped.
He is also being investigated for “terrorism offences” for mass street protests in 2019, a charge that is not covered by the amnesty.
The independence figurehead had hoped to be elected president of Catalonia when his party came in second in elections in May, but lacked sufficient votes in parliament.
READ ALSO: Catalan independence for beginners: Five key points
Puigdemont’s separatists lost to a member of Spain’s ruling socialist party, Salvador Illa, who has been negotiating with the other major independence formation for the presidency.
Fresh elections will be called in October if parties do not name a president by August 26.
“There will be no more electoral campaigns in exile,” said Puigdemont, who campaigned for the Catalan elections from neighbouring France.
“No, the next election campaigns will be there (in Catalonia), and I will be there,” he said.
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