The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will issue a ruling this Thursday on the Amnesty law in response to the preliminary questions raised about criminal forgetfulness by both the Court of Auditors and the National Court, regarding the possibility of amnestying the crimes of embezzlement and terrorism. The CJEU must indicate whether the rule approved by Congress in 2024 is compatible with the EU legal framework.
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Who will the ruling affect?
This ruling will mark the judicial horizon of the former president of the Generalitat and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, who still hopes that the amnesty will take effect for him and remains expatriated in Belgium almost nine years after the 1-O referendum. The former ministers Lluís Puig and Toni Comín are in the same situation. It will also affect the president of Esquerra Republicana, Oriol Junqueras, and the secretary general of JxCat, Jordi Turull, as well as other former ministers such as Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa. They all still face disqualification penalties. On another level are the thirty former senior officials of the Government – including former presidents Artur Mas and Puigdemont – whom the Court of Auditors holds financially responsible for the expenses of the procés and the 1-O, or the members of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) prosecuted for terrorism.
Who must apply the ruling?
The ruling issued by the CJEU will be interpretative and not enforceable. Therefore, it is up to the Spanish courts to apply what the European judges decide. Even if the ruling is favorable to the interests of the independence supporters, their procedural situation will not change initially.
What happens if the ruling supports the Amnesty law?
In November, the Advocate General of the European Union, Dean Spielmann, in his mandatory opinion, practically endorsed the entire Amnesty law. He only questioned the application deadlines provided in the draft. That report is not binding but usually guides the direction of the judgment. If the Luxembourg judges endorse criminal forgetfulness, it will be the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court that will have to make a move, in the case of Puigdemont and the other former Government leaders. The Court of Auditors and the National Court should also file their respective cases. In any case, a ruling supporting the law would be a boost to Pedro Sánchez’s government, which was heavily criticized by Vox and PP for agreeing on the Amnesty law with the independence movement.
What must the Constitutional Court decide?
Puigdemont and the other former ministers took to the Constitutional Court the Supreme Court’s refusal to apply the Amnesty law to them, arguing that there was indeed personal gain, one of the exceptions provided in the law to prevent those charged with corruption from benefiting. The Constitutional Court already validated the Amnesty law in two rulings in 2025 but has waited for the European courts’ decision to issue its verdict on the Supreme Court’s refusal to apply criminal forgetfulness to the procés leaders. The guarantees body is expected to address these appeals from September or October, so the amparo appeals filed a year ago will not be resolved until autumn.
Can the Supreme Court intervene?
The investigating judge of the special procés case, Pablo Llarena, will be on duty these weeks and once the CJEU ruling is known, he could ask the parties – prosecutors and defenses – to take a position. Puigdemont’s defense actually considers that the High Court should apply the ruling. They refer to what happened with the Parot doctrine and recall that ETA prisoners and other common inmates – some of them dangerous – were released within weeks, applying the European ruling, without all of them needing to file new appeals to the Constitutional Court.
What happens if the ruling is adverse to the independence movement’s interests?
Puigdemont’s defense has always pointed out that European case law supports that the former president should not be extradited to Spain, after Llarena denied the extradition proposed by Germany in 2018 for embezzlement. In the other cases that motivated the preliminary questions, the penalties or ongoing judicial processes would remain. In any case, Puigdemont would not find it easy to return to Catalonia, awaiting the Constitutional Court’s ruling, since it must take a stance on the Supreme Court’s position no matter what.
How does Junts face the ruling?
Prudence prevails in JxCat. They argue that whatever the ruling, the final word lies with the Spanish justice system and they have already had some setbacks in that regard. Two years ago, the post-convergent organization took for granted that the law’s entry into force would allow the immediate return of the procés leaders, but now they do not want to anticipate scenarios. The party’s foundation commemoration was planned for the last weekend of July across the border, as in previous years, but after learning the CJEU schedule, the event was canceled. This Thursday Turull and Puigdemont’s lawyer, criminal lawyer Gonzalo Boye, will make an assessment of the ruling from Barcelona. The organization will also have the opportunity to speak on Saturday at the national council meeting.
Some voices within the party indicate that a favorable ruling and the possible return of the former president to Catalonia will encourage the party to make decisions on how to face the second half of the Catalan legislature, now that Salvador Illa already has the Generalitat’s budgets and a safe passage to 2028, or to address pending debates in a complex context, in which polls predict poor results for JxCat. However, the question remains whether Puigdemont, if he returns, will take his seat in the Parliament – most leaders predict he will not – or if he will run again as a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat. In recent months, the former president has stayed away from the spotlight, but it is assumed that if he returns, he will tour all of Catalonia and that his political action will be mainly outside the Ciutadella park.
How does the Government face the ruling?
The Government expects a favorable ruling stating that its approach did not contravene the European legal framework. International law was taken into account at all times in drafting the law. In the PSOE, they also await the ruling hoping that a possible return of Puigdemont will facilitate rapprochement with Junts at a time when the Executive tries to withstand the opposition’s siege with the drafting of the general state budget project, which would be the first – and last – of the legislature. JxCat, for now, opposes it outright.
