The slow digestion of the Amnesty law has received a European tonic this week, an herbal liqueur from Luxembourg. An unequivocal ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has endorsed the law approved by the Congress of Deputies on May 20, 2024, and sealed by the Spanish Constitutional Court on June 26, 2025.
With the endorsement of the European justice system for the amnesty, the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, raised a glass of cava on Thursday before the party leadership: “May the next toast, here or on Mallorca street, be made by the president and the consellers.” Junts has become accustomed to…
The judge in Madrid who will try Alberto González Amador, partner of the Madrid president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for tax fraud has communicated that given the “overload and circumstances weighing on the Court” the date for the trial is still pending, once the opening of the oral trial was already agreed upon for September 2025.
The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard suspects that the former organization secretary of the PSOE Santos Cerdán handled cash money outside his bank accounts. However, it has not been able, or at least for now, to find those five million euros in kickbacks that Supreme Court magistrate Leopoldo Puente mentioned when he sent him to unconditional prison a year ago.
In the midst of political turmoil in Madrid due to the recent conviction of the brother of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, or the case related to his wife, Begoña Gómez, the European Commission draws attention to Spain for the “limited progress” in fighting high-level corruption cases and calls for a national register of lobbyists. It does so in its annual report on the Rule of Law, where, although it recognizes certain advances in processing major cases, it highlights “limited progress” in strengthening the rules on conflicts of interest and officeholders in executive functions, and warns that measures against corruption or the regulation of “lobbies” have not yet yielded the expected results in Spain.
The Director General of the Civil Guard Mercedes González has denied having participated in the plan promoted by the former PSOE organization secretary Santos Cerdán and the party’s so-called ‘plumber’ to destroy judicial cases affecting the party and the environment of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.
Both Junts and the PSOE –also Esquerra Republicana– expected a ruling that would endorse the Amnesty law in European justice, but sharing that goal does not bring the positions of the two political groups closer. From JxCat they emphasized this Friday that nothing changes in the political sphere, although within the socialist ranks they hoped that a favorable ruling and a possible return of the party leader, Carles Puigdemont, could help build bridges and grease again a relationship that has not flowed since last autumn. “This changes nothing,” said today the secretary general of JxCat, Jordi Turull, who made it clear that he has not spoken with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and that they do not plan to do so.
The Minister of Transport, the socialist Óscar Puente, spoke out this Friday about the CJEU rulings that the day before endorsed the amnesty. “They are very serious, not only because they highlight the legal error made by the Supreme Court or the National Court when arguing that the Amnesty law violates community law, which had no basis, but because they prove that there is a part of the judiciary in Spain that does not respect the legitimacy of the legislative power, and believes it is above it to say what can or cannot be legislated,” he warned on RNE.
The Deputy Operational Director (DAO) of the Civil Guard, Manuel Llamas, is giving many explanations. Yesterday he testified before the judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz as a suspect for the alleged crimes of obstruction of justice and malfeasance in the so-called Leire case, the PSOE plumber, for more than two hours.
The Government of Pedro Sánchez insists on celebrating the endorsement of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to the Amnesty law as the explicit confirmation of the goal of its “brave and risky policies” for “reconciliation,” and to “appease” the institutional and social conflict that erupted in Catalonia in 2017 with the independence process. “Reconciliation has been achieved,” highlighted this Friday the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, in an interview on Ser.
