When Europe speaks, Spain must obey
On the day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patron saint of seafarers, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the CJEU, delivered a long-awaited and at the same time highly significant ruling for Catalan and Spanish politics: according to European justice, the amnesty law approved by the Spanish Parliament more than two years ago affects neither the legal order nor the economic interests of the Union. The resolution is clear and unambiguous, leaving no doubt as to the scope of its application.
We must recall why the CJEU issued this ruling. It is not at all common for laws approved by national parliaments to end up being filtered by European courts. The amnesty law ended up there because two Spanish bodies wanted to delay its application: the National High Court and the Court of Auditors. Both took advantage of the faculty to seek an opinion from European justice to avoid applying a law approved by Parliament that they clearly disliked. Up to this point, we can complain about the maneuver, we can criticize it, but to the extent that they used a route recognized by European legislation, we must accept it, as we have done otherwise.
However, once the CJEU has ruled, we must accept nothing more than the immediate application of the European resolution. If you appeal to Europe and Europe speaks, Spain must obey. The tricks are over, and we must demand it as such. There can be no half measures in this demand. Going to Europe has served to gain time and hinder the majority will expressed in the General Courts, but going to Europe has another side to the coin: if you lose, you have to swallow it.
As we are seeing, the obligation to comply with rulings from higher judicial bodies is not accepted by some Spanish bodies. Specifically, the Court of Auditors continues to look for loopholes to evade its obligation to grant amnesty to those affected by the referendum of October 1st and by the external action of the Generalitat during the period 2011-2017. This attitude of disobedience is entirely intolerable, and if it becomes consolidated, it could set a precedent for other judicial bodies in the State to disregard the rulings of the European courts.
Herein lies the crux of the entire matter: how can those who disobey the decrees of higher authorities be made to obey their own? There is no room for interpretation here. You can only enforce your rulings if you comply with those that affect you. Whether you like them or not.
Faced with these discernible acts of disobedience, the Constitutional Court must assert its authority. It is the only one that can do so, because the Supreme Court, which could and should, will not. The Constitutional Court has already ruled on several occasions in favor of the constitutionality of the amnesty law. Now it faces a probably more arduous task: as the Spanish say, meter en vereda the disobedient Spanish courts. The TC even has the legal power, which it did not have before 2015, to enforce its rulings.
In this regard, I will tell a little-known anecdote. In that year 2015, at the height of the sovereignist movement, with an absolute majority in the Parliament in favor of independence, a minister from the PP addressed me, while I was president of the Generalitat, and said to me, literally: “Esta reforma la hemos hecho pensando en ti”. He was referring to a modification of the law governing the Constitutional Court to grant it the power to enforce its rulings without having to resort to ordinary courts. A legislative modification that the PP was able to push through thanks to its absolute majority. The reasoning behind that reform was as follows: the PP will lose its majority and Spain will go months without a government — the prophecy came true to the letter —. The reasoning was completed with a second idea: in the absence of a central government, the Constitutional Court will do the job of stopping the sovereignist movement. They thought I would remain president — here they were mistaken — and they already had the whole scheme set up to try to stop us...
Well, years have passed, more than 10, and the law of the Constitutional Court has not changed, even though others are in government. The TC has the tools to act and must do so without delay or subterfuge. Europe has spoken in writing. It has said that the amnesty does not violate European norms. It is the TC that must restore order, set the playing field, and make those who continue to try to disobey obey.