European Court of Justice withdraws parliamentary immunity from Carles Puigdemont

In today’s ruling, the court overturned the temporary decision adopted on June 2, which temporarily grants the three MEPs parliamentary immunity.

The previous decision was due to the appeal by the three MEPs from the JxCAT party against the decision of the European Parliament.

It should be noted that the Spanish Council of Ministers approved on June 22 a “partial and reversible” amnesty for nine Catalan politicians who participated in the independence bid in 2017, with the aim of opening a new phase of dialogue that is expected to put an end to the Catalan crisis. . These politicians were released on the 24th.

However, the decision did not extend to Puigdemont or to the remaining group of independence activists who fled abroad, and have yet to be prosecuted.

The executive’s decision is far from unanimous in Spanish society, with critics of the opposition, who see the amnesty as a “blow to democracy”, while supporters of independence consider it “insufficient” and call for the amnesty.

The left-wing Spanish minority government believes that granting the amnesty will facilitate dialogue with the autonomous executive branch of the Catalonia region, which has the support of about half of the population of this autonomous community.

The Catalan politicians who organized an illegal referendum on self-determination in the region in 2017 were tried in 2019 and were serving a maximum sentence of nine to 13 years in prison for the crimes of sedition (collective power appeal) and diversion. Public funds.