The endorsement of the amnesty law by the Court of Justice of the European Union will test Spanish institutions and could expose the politicization of justice at the highest levels, which has long been sending worrying signals with the government majority in its sights. The president of the court, Belgian judge Koens Lennaert, highlights the purpose of "reducing institutional and political tensions, as well as facilitating a scenario of reconciliation." Do those who must ratify the law's application share this idea? From the judicial world, there has been an immediate move to distance themselves. For now, various judicial spokespersons have wanted to make three principles very clear: that the CJEU can have whatever opinion it wants, but that regarding the amnesty, it is the Spanish judges who must decide; that to interpret the Constitution we already have the Constitutional Court and there is no need for it to be done from abroad, and that there can be no automatic application of the amnesty. That is to say, calm and patience.
In other words, if the aim was to turn the page "as soon as possible," as Minister Félix Bolaños said, and as would seem reasonable, we are far from that goal. We already know that justice takes time. And it is enough to see what happens every day with judicial actions concerning the socialist government, too often turned into spectacles that neither help respect nor the necessary trust in institutions.
There has been a significant conflict: the challenge, from Catalonia, to Spanish institutions with the push for an independence referendum. Independentism went beyond its limits and, as always when the notion of limits is lost, it crashed. The balance of power did not support it, and Europe always looked in another direction. The amnesty aims to turn the page. We find ourselves, however, in a European context degraded by the growing force of post-democratic authoritarianism, a dynamic that goes from country to country. Far-right parties are gaining ground everywhere, including in Catalonia. Aliança Catalana is growing on the back of Junts' collapse, lost in confusion and frustration. The amnesty is a gesture of détente that does not solve problems but opens up spaces and generates new complicities. The success of those who oppose it would be a cruel sign. Even more tragic if it were the result of confrontation between the judiciary and political power. Is not pacification a key function of those who govern?
