It is necessary to accelerate the implementation of the amnesty

Following the European Union's Advocate General's opinion in favor of the amnesty, it is expected that the CJEU will rule in the same vein in the coming weeks, thus giving a definitive boost to its implementation. The reality is that 522 days after the law's approval, the pace of its application is exasperating due to delaying tactics not only by the Supreme Court against the main leaders, but also by many judges against various defendants. It is particularly curious, then, that the first group to benefit en masse from the amnesty was that of police officers prosecuted for mistreatment or excessive use of force. As many as 164 officers have already been granted amnesty. It wasn't until last May, the date of the latest data from Òmnium's count, that the number of activists granted amnesty surpassed that of police officers, reaching 178. According to the organization's data, of the 726 people with criminal cases and those under investigation by the Court of Auditors, only these 178 have been granted amnesty, while 9 others have not. In 35 cases, amnesty requests have been directly denied; in 48, a response from the European Union is pending; in 75, there has been no response yet; and, notably, in 332, there is no record that the amnesty process has even begun. In the case of individuals with administrative sanctions, primarily fines, only 21 out of 884 cases have been granted amnesty. These figures demonstrate that the Spanish justice system is dragging its feet on this issue and, with few exceptions, most judges follow the Court's lead on amnesty, employing all sorts of delaying tactics. This is why the EU Advocate General's opinion on Thursday is so important. Because when their arguments are found in a ruling by the CJEU, the Supreme Court and the rest of the courts will be left without arguments, since it will have been proven that the amnesty is not only constitutional, as the Constitutional Court itself ruled, but also that it does not contradict the legislation or values ​​of the European Union (on the contrary, because the Advocate General spoke of "context").

The full application of the amnesty is necessary to end the suffering of hundreds of families who have been living with a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads for almost a decade and to finally normalize Catalan political life. In this sense, the return of Carles Puigdemont, which could happen in the first half of next year if both the CJEU and the Constitutional Court do their job, will mark a turning point and put an end to an unjust situation, both for him and for his party.

It is also true that the full implementation of the amnesty would represent a defeat for those sectors of the Spanish judiciary that, since 2017, have been assuming a role that does not belong to them in a democratic system. Politics should be conducted in parliaments, not in courts. Hopefully, the European Court of Justice will ultimately confirm this.