Spain has recently passed the Amnesty Law for Catalan Separationist Protesters

Spain's Congress narrowly approved an amnesty law withdrawing legal action against Catalan separatist leaders for their roles in the 2017 failed independence bid, allowing exiles to return.

Spain’s Congress of Deputies approved the contentious pardon bill on Thursday which will see all charges against the Catalan independence leaders still standing trial for their role in the 2017’s independence referendum.  

 The amnesty law was adopted in the 177-172 vote after a rather heated and often contentious process.  It also allows for the release of 397 Catalan nationalists who have been charged with crimes associated with the independence movement since 2011.  

 Most notably, it will allow the return of Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president, and other politicians who fled the country after they organized the unlawful referendum of 2017 that demanded the secession of Catalonia from Spain.  Puigdemont, who has been in political exile in Belgium since 2017 to avoid arrest, has stated that he intends to return for the regional election which is set for June this year.  

 The Socialist Party of Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was able to pass the amnesty bill with the support of the pro-Catalan independence parties in the parliament since the latter’s support is important for Sánchez’s minority coalition government.  Some of the Catalan separatist groups regarded the vote as a victory even though it was a close one.  

This is not leniency; this is a balance for the wrong done. ’  The leader of the pro-secession party in Catalonia, Miriam Nogueras the party known as Together for Catalonia said ‘Today we have won a battle but the conflict is not over’. 

 However, the conservative parties argued that the pardons were unconstitutional, and it was an attack on the territorial integrity of Spain and accused Sánchez of colluding with the separatists.  The head of the People’s Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo labeled it as “political corruption. ”  

 The amnesty means that legal implications of Catalonia’s independence referendum which had taken place in October 2017 and was accompanied by police violence are now over.  The Spanish government labeled the vote as unconstitutional and illegitimate. 

 The Catalan separatist movement in Barcelona had partial success last year after Sanchez offered to release nine imprisoned leaders of the independence movement after mass protests.  The new amnesty law enhances this by stopping the legal process completely. 

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 It is expected to start in two months but the unionist parties will resist it as they view it as a capitulation to the separatist forces.  It will no doubt revitalize both parties ahead of the Spanish national election that is scheduled for the following year.