Constitutional Court orders amnesty for procés embezzlement. Llarena lifts Puigdemont’s arrest warrant
By seven votes to five, the court annuls the Supreme Court’s refusal to apply the amnesty. Hours later, the judge in the procés case voids the national arrest warrants. Puigdemont welcomes the decision, but does not say when he will return.
The full bench of the Constitutional Court on Tuesday upheld the amparo appeal of former Catalan minister Dolors Bassa and annulled the rulings with which the Supreme Court refused in 2024 to apply the amnesty law to the crime of embezzlement. The vote was seven to five, according to the press. The court obliges the Supreme Court’s Criminal Chamber to issue a new ruling declaring that crime amnestied. Formally, the judgment resolves only Bassa’s case, but it sets a doctrine that reaches the rest of the procés leaders.
The consequence came within hours. Judge Pablo Llarena, the investigating magistrate in the case at the Supreme Court, lifted the national arrest warrant hanging over Carles Puigdemont, according to Europa Press, La Vanguardia and El Mundo. He made the same decision for Toni Comín and Lluís Puig. Puigdemont has lived in Belgium since 2017. In theory, he can now return to Spain without being arrested at the border.
The five dissenting justices signed a very harsh dissenting opinion. They argue that the Constitutional Court “usurps” the Supreme Court’s role by deciding how the amnesty is applied, according to El Mundo. The rapporteur was the court’s president, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, as El País reported on Monday. The clash between the two courts goes back a long way: the Supreme Court held that the procés leaders obtained a personal benefit from the public money, and for that reason excluded embezzlement from the amnesty.
Puigdemont spoke in the afternoon in Waterloo. He celebrated the “victory of the amnesty,” but warned that “nothing is being solved today” in the political conflict, according to Europa Press. He avoided saying when he will return, El Mundo reported. Junts spoke of a victory for the independence movement. Vox said the ruling shows the support of the “institutions” for Sánchez’s campaign, La Vanguardia reported.
The ruling comes the day after the election call and changes the board in Catalonia. A return by Puigdemont before Nov. 29 could mobilize both blocs. For the PP and Vox, the amnesty will be a central campaign argument. For the PSOE, it is the closing of a chapter that was born of its 2023 investiture pact with Junts, the same party that brought down the housing decrees last week.
Steps remain. The Supreme Court’s Criminal Chamber will have to issue the new ruling the Constitutional Court demands for Bassa, and the same doctrine will be applied to the others convicted of embezzlement. Llarena has already applied it to those who were still outside Spain. El Mundo describes the ruling as the endorsement of the “Pumpido Constitutional Court,” and the phrase anticipates the tone of the campaign: the PP and Vox will put the spotlight on the court, and the PSOE will try to bring the conversation back to housing. None of the parties has yet said how the ruling will affect their pacts after Nov. 29.