ECJ ruling on amnesty: Separatist leader Puigdemont achieves important stage victory

Dem was in Spain was preceded by years of heated debate. This is at the center of it all illegal referendum on the independence of the Catalonia region in 2017 – and the pardon of the activists and politicians involved. This was initiated after the 2023 parliamentary elections: Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was then dependent on the support of the Catalan separatist parties ERC and Junts to secure his re-election. In 2024, his government introduced a controversial amnesty law that expunged crimes related to the referendum. Around 300 people have since been pardoned.

Now the most well-known actor could also… process be favored: Carles Puigdemont. The former regional president of Catalonia fled to Belgium to escape the Spanish justice system in 2017. He has not yet been able to benefit from the amnesty law because the Supreme Court in Madrid considers the accusation of embezzlement of public funds against him to be ineligible for amnesty.

Constitutional

The Spanish Constitutional Court had already declared the amnesty law to be largely constitutional in 2025. However, the Spanish Court of Auditors and the Spanish National Court of Justice had doubts about the compatibility with EU law and therefore referred questions to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling. The Court has now found that the regulations neither run counter to the EU’s financial interests nor violate the Terrorism Directive.

The ball is once again in the court of the Spanish courts, which must interpret and apply the ECJ ruling in pending proceedings. Even if Puigdemont’s return to Spain is not yet imminent, the verdict is seen as an important victory for him and his colleagues. According to media reports, the arrest warrant against him could be lifted when the Spanish Constitutional Court decides (probably in October) on his complaint about the protection of fundamental rights.

In any case, there was great joy in his party on Thursday. “What we are doing together is historic,” said the Junts MP Miriam Nogueras. ERC Chairman Oriol Junqueras spoke of an “important day for Catalonia, for democracy in Spain and for Europe”.

The verdict is also a success for Prime Minister Sánchez, whose minority government in parliament relies on small regional parties: the socialist is under pressure because of corruption investigations in his environment. This week his brother was found guilty of abuse of office. The judgment is not final.