Catalonia’s deposed president Carles Puigdemont, who has been in Germany for four months, said on Wednesday he will return to Belgium after a Spanish judge dropped a European arrest warrant for him.

"This weekend I will return to Belgium," the separatist leader told a news conference in Berlin, adding his "political activity will be based in Belgium".

Sacked as Catalan president after a failed secession bid on October 27, Puigdemont fled to Brussels several days later as did several members of his executive who had also been deposed.

There, he settled in Waterloo before being arrested in Germany at the end of March on his return from a trip to Finland.

Puigdemont was freed on bail around 10 days later and set about waiting for a German court decision on an extradition request by Spain, where he is wanted over his role in the independence drive.

But on Thursday, Spain’s Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, in charge of the case against separatist leaders, dropped the international arrest warrant.

Germany had refused to extradite him for declaring Catalan independence last year, in an act that Madrid ruled was illegal.

From Belgium, Puigdemont will be able to travel where he wants, save Spain where he is still wanted for rebellion, which carries up to 25 years in jail, and misuse of public funds.

Puigdemont said he would return to Brussels with his family on Saturday.

"Everyone knows that this is no longer an internal Spanish affair," he told a news conference in Berlin, adding that the independence campaign he would continue to pursue from Belgium had taken on a European aspect.

Six members of Puigdemont’s former cabinet are now in jail facing rebellion charges, while he and several others are scattered across Europe from Scotland to Switzerland, where they so far have successfully avoided Spanish efforts to have them sent home.

The charges against Puigdemont and the five other former Catalan leaders in self-imposed exile remain in place despite the lifting of the European warrants, meaning they would be arrested if they returned to Spain.

In theory, he could remain in self-exile for 20 years, which in Spain’s legal system is the time limit after which the rebellion charge is no longer valid.