Arrest warrant revoked | Catalonia: Puigdemont is about to return

Still in exile, soon back in Catalonia: the former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont ultimately falls under the amnesty law. Photo: AFP/Ed Jones The Spanish Constitutional Court has helped the law achieve a breakthrough: the amnesty law of 2024 must also be applied to the former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont. The arrest warrant against him for embezzlement is ineffective. The Supreme Court overturned it shortly afterwards.

Over 300 defendants have now benefited from the amnesty law, the former regional president Carles Puigdemont and a few others as well as the plaintiff Dolors Bassa have not benefited for a long time because the Supreme Court accused them of embezzlement of public funds and declared this offense ineligible for amnesty. Spain's Supreme Court thereby violated the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which expressly declared the amnesty law in its entirety to be compatible with EU law. It also includes embezzlement and terrorism charges against members of the Catalan independence movement. In the final instance, Spanish constitutional law followed the legal opinion of the ECJ.

The fact that the Spanish judiciary did not apply the amnesty to Puigdemont was a central motive for the liberal Catalan independence party Junts to break with the Social Democratic-led minority government of Pedro Sánchez in October 2025. Sánchez was already dependent on the seven Junt deputies in the Madrid Congress for his election in 2023 and also for every law passed since then. The blockade since 2025 prompted Sánchez to call early elections on Monday.

After their historic 2023 compromise, Sánchez and Puigdemont failed to find a common path to a plurinational republic. The very prospect of this met with bitter resistance from the right and ultra-right, including Sánchez's right wing of the PSOE.

After the November elections, there is much to suggest that the right-wing PP and the ultra-right Vox will take over the central government in Madrid. If that happens, Sánchez and Puigdemont will be among the losers. The Constitutional Court’s ruling will not appease the right and ultra-right – on the contrary. This does not bode well for Spain's regions, especially Catalonia and the Basque Country.

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