The independence movement is impatient with the application of the amnesty

When not even a day had passed since the approval of the amnesty law in Congress, the independence movement began to urge the Government this Friday to have the text published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and speed up the procedures to guarantee that The beneficiaries of the rule, led by the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, can return to Spain as soon as possible. The deadlines for activating the amnesty, which will be effective once it is published in the official gazette, depend partly on the possibilities of the Junts leader attending the Parliament of Catalonia in person in the next investiture debate, as he assured in the campaign. electoral. The plenary session is scheduled for June 25 at the latest.

In an electoral event from Brussels, Puigdemont did not specify any date this Friday, although he took pride in his work in Europe: “Now the Spanish State has less room to act against political dissidents. Before there was an open bar,” he said. A dozen personalities from the social and political sphere, such as ERC deputy Ruben Wagensberg, are also waiting to guarantee his return.

Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, denounced this Friday that the Government has “embargoed” the publication of the law on purpose. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, denied that accusation: “The procedures are being done [correspondientes] and it will be published, like all laws, when it is time,” said the socialist in a message that sought to normalize publication rates.

Boye maintained that Pedro Sánchez’s Executive is “withholding” the publication of the law so that the PSOE is not harmed during the European election campaign and because it is “afraid of Puigdemont’s electoral push.” In an interview in Rac1, the lawyer added that the Government does “many things that border on illegality” and questioned the timing of this process. “The question is why the Government is withholding a legislative decision and instead of taking it immediately to the king, it keeps it in a drawer,” he added before pointing out that “someone is getting Felipe VI, the authority that should ultimately sanction all laws.

Oriol Junqueras’ lawyer, Andreu Van den Eynde, expressed himself along the same lines, and stated that it would be “implausible” for the law not to be published in the BOE before June 9, the date of the European elections. “It should be published now,” he concluded. Bolaños played down the matter, and at an event in Pamplona he remarked that “the law will be published” once “all the procedures” have been done. “The law will be published when appropriate, like all laws,” he insisted. Last year, laws such as the Housing Law (it took eight days to be published) or the Animal Protection Law (its appearance in the BOE took 13 days) were approved, which were the result of complicated negotiations between political parties. The average wait to publish a new rule in the BOE was 10 days in 2023, according to Executive sources. However, there have been important and organic laws such as the reform of the crime of sedition, of December 2012, which was published the day after approval in the Senate.

In any case, the signs are of impatience, not restlessness. In the independence movement, the conviction reigns that the amnesty, sooner or later, will be a fact and will validate the strategy assumed by Puigdemont and those who, after the failure of the processes, decided to flee Spain rather than face justice. “Without exile today there would be no amnesty,” he said at an event in Brussels together with Puigdemont and Toni Comín, in which he defended a judicial strategy that was based on “Europeanizing the problem and showing that the solutions were beyond the framework of the Spanish State”. A strategy, he has advanced, that will continue, also sooner rather than later, when the amnesty reaches the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).

The big question is when the political and social leaders of the independence movement will be able to return to Spain, with the special interest of Carles Puigdemont. And there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer. The Supreme Court would have to annul the national arrest warrant that has been imposed on the Junts leader since November 2017, when he left Spain, once the law comes into force. But sources from the high court, however, assured EL PAÍS that, before taking that step, the opinion of the Prosecutor’s Office and the rest of the parties involved must be known on whether to go to European justice or the Constitutional Court before applying. the measure of grace. The court considers that the precautionary measure can only be lifted once the court is clear about its decision on the amnesty.

If you go to the CJEU or the Constitutional Court, the accusations will be given a period of 10 working days to respond, so it is foreseeable that the Criminal Chamber will not issue any resolution on the arrest order until, at the earliest, the second half of June. If the court chooses to lift the arrest warrant, the former president of the Generalitat will be able to return to Spain without risk of being arrested.

Boye himself specified that Puigdemont does not plan to return to Spain “automatically, when it appears in the BOE”, but rather depending on when the investiture debate is held in Parliament. The lawyer recalled that Republicans Marta Rovira and Rubén Wagensberg, both currently in Switzerland, could do so.

Puigdemont himself did not give details of his plans to return to Catalonia at an electoral event in Brussels where he highlighted his “in exile” strategy. He assured that his work in Europe has opened the doors to the transformation of the current legal framework, and said that “the perimeter within which the Spanish State can act against political dissidents is much narrower than seven years ago, when there was a bar. free”. The intention of the formation is that Puigdemont returns with MEP Toni Comín, headliner of the formation for 9-J, and former councilor Lluís Puig, also in Belgium. “We want our return to symbolize what it has to symbolize, a great victory,” Comín said in a press conference.

Despite the optimism prevailing in the pro-independence ranks, part of the group observes with suspicion the predisposition of some judges to apply the law in the minimum expression after learning a few days ago that it was circulated from some corporate emails of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). a guide to escape the execution of the new rule. “They used public resources to see if a law that had not yet been born was applicable to the crime of embezzlement,” Boye exemplified. “Come on, another shot,” he said ironically. Comín himself stated that there is a risk of “prevarication” if judges do not apply the rule. “If a judge does not lift the precautionary measures [órdenes de detención] More or less immediately, you will be breaking the law.

The Comuns Sumar candidate for the European elections, Jaume Asens, a personal friend of Comin, and a key person in reaching an agreement on this law, expressed himself in the same direction: “In democracy there is the rule of law, not the rule of judges. ”.

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