Hours earlier, the Constitutional Court upheld an amnesty for Catalan pro-independence leaders.
On Tuesday, Spain’s Supreme Court set aside the arrest warrant against former Catalan president and separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, who has lived in Belgium since the failed secession attempt in 2017.
RELATED:
Spanish Teachers Block Roads Across Catalonia as School Year Begins with Strike
Carles Puigdemont was president of the Catalan government when the regional Parliament approved a failed declaration of independence, leading to the arrest, trial and imprisonment of various leaders of the separatist process. They were later granted amnesty, but others decided to leave Spain, such as Puigdemont, and therefore still had pending cases with the courts.
On Tuesday, the full bench of Spain’s Constitutional Court upheld amnesty for the crime of embezzlement for leaders of the Catalan independence movement. This came after constitutional protection appeals by former Catalan ministers Jordi Turull and Dolors Bassa against the Supreme Court’s refusal to apply the amnesty to the crime of embezzlement.
The full bench approved Bassa’s appeal by seven progressive votes in favor and five conservative votes against, based on a draft ruling by the court’s president, establishing legal doctrine for other similar cases.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling reverses the Supreme Court’s position, which did not apply the amnesty to embezzlement because it considered that the leaders of the independence process had obtained a personal financial benefit, one of the exceptions provided for in the law.
The first thing I’ve proposed, if I can return — which [remains] to be seen — is to immerse myself in today’s Catalonia. That is my first intention: to breathe it, to touch it, to listen to it — and see for myself.
📲 Interview with @thetimes: https://t.co/mv6RJRjfSQ pic.twitter.com/9LFcncJmHF
— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) September 20, 2026
Supreme Court Lifts Arrest Warrant
Less than an hour after the Constitutional Court’s ruling became known, Supreme Court Justice Pablo Llarena immediately set aside the warrant against Puigdemont, meaning he can now return to Spain.
Without waiting for the Constitutional Court’s ruling to be published in the Official State Gazette, Llarena issued an order setting aside the warrants against Puigdemont and two other former ministers in his government who were being tried in absentia.
The former president of the Generalitat arrived in Belgium in October 2017, three days after the Catalan Parliament approved the declaration of independence and the Spanish government suspended Catalonia’s autonomy.
He has remained in that country ever since because of the Spanish justice system’s arrest warrants, which remained in effect until Tuesday, with the exception of a brief and unexpected return to Barcelona in August 2024 to deliver a speech near the Catalan Parliament on the occasion of the inauguration of the new president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa.
Puigdemont announced that he would make an “institutional statement” Tuesday from Waterloo, Belgium, where he lives, to assess the decisions of the Constitutional Court and Justice Llarena.
⬛️⬜️ #OnThisDay in 1934, President Lluís Companys proclaimed the Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic.
Spain responded with violence and repression, arresting the Catalan government and suspending autonomy.
92 years later, the struggle for independence continues. pic.twitter.com/LtWyUWjHTI
— Assemblea International (@assemblea_int) October 6, 2026
Government and Opposition Offer Conflicting Reactions
Spain’s President Pedro Sanchez welcomed the Court’s decision, stressing that “with this we help Catalan society.” He reiterated that the Catalan crisis “is a political problem” that had to be resolved “through politics,” and that he defended both the amnesty law and pardons for separatist leaders.
The regional government of Catalonia, led by Socialist and former minister Salvador Illa, also applauded the Constitutional Court’s decision. “Time has proven us right. Catalonia is moving forward,” Illa stated.
The conservative People’s Party (PP) considers that Puigdemont’s possible return to Spain closes Sanchez’s “transaction,” in which he “exchanged” an “investiture” for an “amnesty” for the separatist politician.
“Selling favors in exchange for power must be punished at the ballot box,” PP leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo said on X regarding the next general elections, scheduled for Nov. 29.
The party led by Puigdemont, Junts, supported Sanchez’s investiture as president of the government in 2023 and in exchange demanded amnesty for those involved in the independence process.
However, for months that party has voted alongside the PP on most of the proposals the government has presented in Congress, and it did so again last week to reject two decrees with measures addressing the housing crisis facing the country. That led Sanchez to decide to call early elections, which had initially been scheduled for 2027.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.