Amnesty for Catalan leaders upheld as support for independence surges

Luke James

Almost a decade after Catalonia’s independence referendum, the country’s former president Carles Puigdemont is among exiled politicians who are one step closer to returning home after Europe’s highest court supported an amnesty.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled in favour this week of an amnesty law passed by the Spanish parliament in 2024 as part of an agreement between the ruling Socialist party of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and pro-independence parties who hold the balance of power.

“The Court of Justice holds that EU law does not preclude the law by which the amnesty is granted,” said the Court’s president Koen Lenaerts. “The Spanish amnesty law seeks to reduce political and institutional tensions and to facilitate a scenario for reconciliation.”

Puigdemont, who has been living in Belgium since the 2017 referendum was brutally suppressed by the Spanish state, said the judgement represented a “complete victory” for the independence movement that would allow the independence movement to “regain strength.”

It’s the second boost for the independence movement in as many weeks after a Catalan government poll showed support is at 45% – up from 39% last year and the highest level of support since 2020. Support for remaining in Spain remained stable at 51%.

The increase came mainly from supporters of pro-independence parties who had previously preferred greater autonomy, although support also doubled among supporters of left-wing Comuns, the Catalan equivalent of Podemos.

Puigdemont’s return in particular would be a timely boost for his party, the centre-right Junts per Catalunya, which is losing voters to the far-right Aliança Catalana. The poll predicted that Junts, which is currently the largest opposition party in the Catalan parliament, would fall from 35 to 16 seats and fall behind Aliança into fourth place.

Plaid Cymru’s sister party, Esquerra Republicana (Republican Left), are predicted to gain between four to six seats and become the second largest party behind the Socialists who would fall back from 42 to around 36.

The Socialists have been governing with the support of Esquerra and Comuns since 2024 when pro-independence parties lost the majority they had held in the Catalan parliament for 12 years as a result of their supporters staying home amid fatigue caused by division and repression.

Esquerra leader Oriol Junqueras, who spent almost four years in prison, said this week’s court ruling confirmed that legal “repression should never have been the answer to a democratic conflict” and that it was now Spain’s democracy that is on trial.

The Spanish conservative Partido Popular, which led the Spanish government at the time of the referendum, said it had “absolute respect” for the ruling. That was interpreted by mainstream Catalan newspaper Diari Ara as an overture to Puigdemont in the expectation that the PP could need the support of his MP’s following the next Spanish elections.

Despite the clarity of this week’s ruling, Puigdemont and other exiles still face further delays before they can return. The law was referred to European level by conservative judges in Spain’s highly politicised judicial system who have refused to apply it and it is anticipated that they will continue to do so.

“It’s more than probable that the Supreme court will continue to look for ways to escape the application of the law through procedural delays and irregular interpretations,” read the editorial of Diara Ara on Friday.

Independence referendum

More than two million people participated in the 2017 independence referendum despite the fact that riot police violently attacked voters and even confronted Catalan police officers and firefighters in their efforts to seize ballot boxes.

In the aftermath of the poll, the Spanish authorities launched a campaign of ‘lawfare’ against politicians and activists.

Puigdemont is among seven who went into exile, while Junqueras is among political and civil society leaders who served up to four years in prison and remain banned from holding public office.

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