The Constitutional Court's first ruling endorses the Amnesty Law

The Constitutional Court's (CC) first ruling upholds the main aspects of the amnesty law, although it does not address the embezzlement charge against Carles Puigdemont.

The draft of the first ruling prepared by the vice president of the Constitutional Court (TC), Inmaculada Montalbán , which responds to the appeal of unconstitutionality filed by the PP , supports the constitutionality of a large part of the amnesty law .

The report supports the constitutionality of a large part of the amnesty law, although it partially upholds three of the grounds of unconstitutionality raised by the People's Party (PP) in its appeal filed on September 9 regarding minor aspects of the law.

This appeal will only determine whether the rule is constitutional or not , but will not fall within its scope of application. That is, it will not address the specific cases of former President Carles Puigdemont, Junqueras, and the other pro-independence leaders who have not been granted amnesty for embezzlement.

The report that supports the bulk of the amnesty law will be studied in the coming days by the ten judges of the Constitutional Court in preparation for the plenary session on June 10, since deliberations and interventions to close the issue will begin on June 24, which could last several days, foreseeably until June 26 .

The amnesty law is now a year old, with many of its political objectives still in the making, given that the main pro-independence leaders have been left out—for the time being—awaiting the Constitutional Court's ruling.

The PP's appeal, known as the "main appeal" because it raises the most objections to the law, will set the course, even though it came after others, such as the Supreme Court's constitutional challenge.

The Supreme Court understands that the misappropriation of the "procés" falls under one of the exceptions contemplated by the amnesty law itself for not applying it : that they obtained a personal benefit. In this regard, ruling after ruling has emphasized that the pro-independence leaders did not pay for the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017, out of their own pockets but rather used public funds to pursue partisan interests .

The high court also maintains that the Catalan independence process falls under a second exception included in the legal provision: the impact on the EU's financial and economic interests . According to its reasoning, the objective pursued with the 1-O vote—an independent Catalonia—would have reduced EU revenues .

The Supreme Court is awaiting the Constitutional Court's ruling with relative calm because its judges have based their decisions on the legal interpretation of the amnesty law—considering that its application to the leaders of the "procés" (independence process) can be exempted—not on its constitutionality.

Consequently, legal sources anticipate that, even with a law declared constitutional, the national arrest warrants against Puigdemont and former Catalan ministers Toni Comín and Lluis Puig will be maintained , as well as the disqualification sentences for Junqueras and the others convicted for the 'procés', which extend until 2031 .

In any case, given that the pro-independence leaders are likely to fight in the Supreme Court to assert a possible favorable ruling from the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court has already left the door open in several rulings to submit its own preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) when the time comes.

This would be the Supreme Court's last resort to defend its arguments, and it would follow in the footsteps of the Madrid High Court (TSJM), which has already appealed to the Luxembourg court to overrule a ruling by the Constitutional Court . The Seville Court is also considering doing so in the ERE case. At the time, the president of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, internally questioned whether Spanish courts could act in this manner but found insufficient support.

For now, the Supreme Court has only chosen to question the amnesty before the Constitutional Court, not for any of the cases directly affecting the pro-independence leaders, but rather for one case involving public disorder. Meanwhile, the National Court, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, and the Court of Auditors are awaiting responses from the European Court of Justice.

The report drafted by Montalbán will be distributed among the judges today so they can study it before the plenary session, which begins on June 10th. The vice president of the Constitutional Court will present it to her colleagues. Deliberations, however, will not take place until the next plenary session, which begins on June 24th, when the ruling is scheduled to be delivered.