Madrid, Jun. 2, (dpa/GNA) – A controversial law granting amnesty to Catalan separatists was given the go-ahead by Spain’s Constitutional Court in a ruling issued on Monday.

The judges in Madrid overturned a previous judgment by the Supreme Court, which had ruled that the law was unconstitutional.

Citing judicial sources, the state television broadcaster RTVE and other media outlets reported that the Constitutional Court had only ordered minor changes to the legislation.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had promised the amnesty and other concessions to the Catalan separatists in order to secure the votes of two separatist parties for his re-election in November 2023.

The passing of the law by the national parliament last May was preceded by heated debates and several votes. The conservative People’s Party (PP) of opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo repeatedly voiced sharp criticisms.

Even after the Constitutional Court’s decision was announced, the conservative opposition reiterated its criticism. The secretary-general of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, told journalists that Sánchez had “bought his way to stay in power” with the law.

The Supreme Court in Madrid had reviewed the law at the request of the PP and ruled it unconstitutional. It argued that it violated the right to equality before the law and the principles of legal certainty and the prohibition of arbitrariness.

Several separatists who had fled abroad to escape Spanish justice were able to return home without being arrested after the law came into force last year. In some cases, however, the arrest warrants had not been lifted.

This applies, among others, to former regional government leader Carles Puigdemont. The 62-year-old has been living in exile in Belgium since the illegal independence referendum he organized in Catalonia in autumn 2017.

GNA

PDC