Puigdemont asks the Constitutional Court to lift his arrest warrant after the Advocate General's ruling

BarcelonaCarles Puigdemont's defense team is making moves to expedite the application of the amnesty so that the former president can return to Catalonia. The defense team for the Junts leader requested on Monday, through a written statement of arguments to the Constitutional Court, that it apply the law "urgently and preferentially," according to reports. The World And the ARA has confirmed this, considering the favorable opinion on the law issued by the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) last Thursday. The endorsement largely covered the amnesty law, including its application to cases of terrorism and embezzlement, and denied that it affected EU interests.

Puigdemont's defense team joins MEP Toni Comín's request to lift the arrest warrant and extend it to the former president, relying on "the conclusions of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the preliminary questions related to the [unclear] which reinforce the need to preserve the purpose of the amnesty with the requested provisional suspension."

The argument used by the defense, led by Gonzalo Boye, is based on the fact that the legal landscape has changed "decisively" thanks to two events: the declaration of constitutionality of the amnesty law and the Advocate General's conclusions on the preliminary questionsThey claim that the regulation "is fully compliant with EU law," according to the defense. That is why Boye insists that it is necessary "that the appeal for protection not lose its purpose without further excuses or unjustifiable delays." It is the same urgency that Juntos already demanded last week from the Constitutional CourtWithout waiting for the final ruling of the CJEU, due to the strength of the opinion.

While it is true that the resolution is neither a judgment nor binding –something that Puigdemont's defense brief acknowledges–, in most proceedings the CJEU follows the same line as the Advocate General's opinion, so both the Catalan and Republican parties and the Spanish government celebrated the step as a "In this sense, the arguments also assert the "organically jurisdictional" role of the Advocate General in the European legal system.

Setback for the Supreme Court

The document emphasizes that the conclusions are "decisive" because they "expressly dispel the doubts about compatibility with EU law that some internal bodies had invoked to delay or question its application," alluding to the excuse the Supreme Court clung to. The reason, according to the Advocate General, is that the law falls within the "core of sovereign competences of the Member States." Furthermore, Puigdemont's defense highlights several points in the Advocate General's opinion, such as the clarification that the law encompasses "all actions linked to the so-called Process," including "all conduct carried out in this political and institutional context." Therefore, it also maintains that "when the conditions for applying an amnesty are met, the jurisdictional body must issue a ruling that terminates the proceedings and proceeds to close the case without further formalities," and insists that "there must be no unjustified delay."

Nevertheless, Boye reiterates that "the execution of the arrest warrants would cause irreparable harm" and that a "precautionary suspension" of the order is necessary to safeguard "the effectiveness" of the appeal for protection filed by the defense with the Constitutional Court.