The Constitutional Court dividedly approves the Amnesty Law

The Constitutional Court's plenary session on Thursday upheld the constitutionality of the amnesty law, with six votes in favor from the progressive majority and four votes against from the conservative minority.

Legal sources have informed EFE that the Court of Guarantees has approved, after four days of deliberations, a ruling that rejects the appeal of unconstitutionality filed by the Popular Party against the law and also rules out appealing to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) .

Pending the final ruling, the court has approved the text of the vice president, Inmaculada Montalbán , which broadly supports the amnesty law except for three minor aspects. The judges have made contributions to the law that do not substantially modify the draft submitted to the plenary session.

The ruling is based on this report, which stated that the amnesty is within the Constitution because it is not expressly prohibited , and defends its validity because it responds to a "general interest" for the "improvement of coexistence and social cohesion" in Catalonia and to overcome the "social and political tensions" of the independence process .

The resolution has four dissenting votes from judges Ricardo Enríquez, Enrique Arnaldo, Concepción Espejel and César Tolosa .

The text does not assess the "political motivations" for passing the amnesty law, which garnered support from pro-independence MPs for Pedro Sánchez's investiture, and asserts that the Constitutional Court's role is not to make "a judgment of political intentions."

The first report endorsed the main aspects of the law, although it did not address the crime of embezzlement affecting Carles Puigdemont. The Constitutional Court's likely decision will not clarify his future either, given that this ruling will not address the application of the amnesty to embezzlement, something the Supreme Court opposes.

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