The position of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont has taken a 180 degree turn now that the seven Junts deputies in Congress have the key to reinvesting Pedro Sánchez as president of the government. Junts has already said that they will not do it “for nothing”, which implies a high price. The former president has always rejected a personal solution to his situation and for this reason he calls for an amnesty, which would end the persecution against all the people who allegedly committed criminal offenses during the process and would ultimately prevent him from reaching Spain arrested and sent to pretrial detention before being tried.
But can the PSOE really offer Junts a compromise so that Puigdemont gets out of the legal situation that is threatening him? As requested by Junts, the most effective thing would be for the Socialists, together with the rest of the parties that support them, to carry out an amnesty law, similar to the one approved in 1977, to exonerate all those implicated in legal proceedings, trials and sentences. the process For now, the Socialists have not even wanted to hear about this possibility, alleging that the amnesty approved almost fifty years ago was to free the political prisoners of the Francisco Franco dictatorship, a situation that they understand to be very different from the current one.
Some PSOE leaders have even gone so far as to say in public that an amnesty would be unconstitutional. However, what the Constitution expressly prohibits are collective pardons. The grace measures must be individualized and signed by the King, as was done with the ERC leader, Oriol Junqueras, and the other eight convicted of sedition. A pardon, with his own argumentation, for each of them. Some constitutionalists consider that, by a rule of thumb, if general pardons are prohibited, amnesty is even more so. But other experts disagree with this thesis since the Constitution does not rule on amnesty, in such a way that the PSOE would have some room for maneuver to present a bill in this regard. Another thing is that the current acting president is willing to deliver that trick.
For the expresident this would be one of the few real options that could save him from a trial.
To receive a possible pardon, Puigdemont would first have to be handed over to Spain, tried and convicted, and that would entail some time in prison. The measure of grace cannot be granted in advance, but only when there is a final sentence. In addition, if Sánchez does not arrive at Moncloa, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, could achieve a sufficient majority to govern in new elections. In that case, in addition to recovering the crime of sedition – which would no longer affect the former president for being unfavorable to the prisoner – the options of obtaining a pardon would be practically nil, and even more so with Vox as a government partner.
The option of stopping the European arrest warrant (OED) has already been ruled out because the four prosecutors of the process demanded that the investigating judge Pablo Llarena reactivate it the day after the elections. The judge cannot reactivate it if it is not at the request of the prosecutor. The Supreme Court magistrate had withdrawn it so that the European courts could resolve two issues that were pending and that have already had an answer. The first was the question for a preliminary ruling for the Court of Justice of the European Union to determine whether Belgium –the country where Puigdemont currently resides– has the power to deny the surrender of a leader considered a fugitive from justice. And the second was the response to an appeal by Puigdemont against the decision of the European Parliament to withdraw his immunity. In neither of the two cases has the expresident had a favorable response. High Court sources believe that the ex-president’s options for maneuver are limited after the two European rulings.
As soon as Llarena reactivates the OED, the Belgian courts will have to rule. It will be necessary to see if she harms Puigdemont that the crime for which she is claimed is no longer sedition, which generated controversy in other countries of the European Union. After his repeal, Llarena prosecuted him for embezzlement of public funds.
Another issue that the former president must have is that if he fails to stop his arrival in Spain, his entry into preventive detention is highly probable. And in the hypothetical case that the Prosecutor’s Office objects, Vox is appearing in the judicial process as a popular accusation, so the judge will have the option to decide it. What he could achieve is an approach to a Catalan prison, since that does not depend on the judge but on the Interior.
These are the options planned now, but both Puigdemont and Sánchez still have room for maneuver to find new solutions.