Spain Congress Passes Amnesty Law For Catalan Nationalists

Spain’s Congress has approved the government’s Catalan amnesty law, ahead of its implementation.

The law seeks to withdraw pending legal action against Catalan nationalists for separatist activities, including a 2017 referendum and failed independence bid.

The law received the backing of a narrow majority, with 177 lawmakers voting in favour and 172 voting against.

The amnesty law has spent six months in parliament since the Socialist Party (PSOE) of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, presented it.

It was approved in a preliminary congressional vote in March, before going to the opposition-controlled Senate, which delayed the bill’s passage but was unable to block it altogether.

The amnesty is expected to benefit nearly 400 Catalan nationalists who have been facing legal action since November 2011. 

Many of them were involved in the organisation of an independence referendum in 2017 which was deemed illegal.

Police who have been facing prosecution for attacking voters during the referendum will also benefit from the law.

However, the most high-profile and controversial beneficiary is Carles Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia who led the 2017 secession drive before going into self-exile in Belgium, where he has resided ever since while evading extradition. Several other pro-independence politicians also left the country.

Mr Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia (JxCat) party and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) demanded the amnesty from Mr Sánchez in exchange for their parliamentary support for his coalition government.

“This is not clemency, it is a necessary redress. Today we have won a battle, but the conflict isn’t over,” said Miriam Nogueras of JxCat party.