Carles Puigdemont sent text messages to a colleague in which he appeared to acknowledge his push for independence was “finished”, after the Catalan parliament postponed Tuesday’s inauguration amid a legal battle over the return of the fugitive leader.

In the series of messages, sent to Toni Comin, a former cabinet member, on Tuesday night and published by Spanish network Telecinco on Wednesday, Mr Puigdemont said: “We are again living the last days of the Catalan Republic”, and lamented that the government in Madrid had “triumphed”.

"I suppose you are clear that this is finished, they have sacrificed us, at least me,” he wrote, in an apparent reference to allies in the independence bloc.

Mr Puigdemont’s statements were seized upon by opponents as the death knell of the Catalan independence drive, even as he scrambled to repair the damage and Mr Comin threatened legal action over the explosive leak.

“Puigdemont himself has recognised that the efforts of La Moncloa have triumphed,” said Xavier Garcia Albiol, the leader of Mr Rajoy’s Popular Party in Catalonia.

Miguel Iceta, leader of the Catalan socialists, told the network La Sexta that Mr Puigdemont was “starting to become aware of the reality” and suggested he would renounce the presidency “in the coming days”.