Puigdemont's cat sneaks into the Real Casino de Madrid
MadridThere is a lot of anticipation at 15 Alcalá Street in Madrid. It is not because of the housing rights protest camp at Puerta del Sol, which is just a few meters away, but because the president of the Constitutional Court (TC), Cándido Conde-Pumpido, is speaking there, just the week before the TC is set to issue the first ruling in favor of granting protection and, therefore, amnesty to the leaders of the 'Procés'. He is participating in an informative breakfast organized by Nueva Economía Fórum, which has drawn a lot of media attention, but there are few political authorities in the room. Only three Constitutional Court magistrates—the vice-president, Inmaculada Montalbán; Ramón Sáez Valcárcel, and the former Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Campo, all three considered part of the progressive bloc—and the delegate of the Spanish government in Madrid, Francisco Martín, who is a regular at these types of meetings.
Obviously, the top local or regional officials from Madrid, who are from the PP, are not there, but neither are those from the Spanish executive branch. Only two former PSOE ministers, Dolores Delgado—former Attorney General of the State—and Ángel Gabilondo, who, moreover, in terms of protocol, was seated behind the secretary general of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, and the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre. The leader of the employers' association, who moves like a fish in water in Madrid, avoids questions from journalists when, informally, they ask him at the entrance about what he thinks Junts will do. Carles Puigdemont's party must pronounce themselves on the two housing decree laws this Friday in the Congress of Deputies and they are keeping the suspense regarding the direction of their vote.
The return of the former president of the Generalitat is the elephant in the room while Conde-Pumpido gives his opening statement, in which he tiptoes around the decision he must make imminently regarding the amnesty for the leaders of the 'Procés' on Tuesday, October 6th. However, he does defend that the Constitutional Court has always been the "guarantor of freedoms" in Spain, putting the 23-F coup d'état, ETA, and the 'Procés' in the same bag.
It is when the journalists' questions arrive that he gets into the subject. For example, he justifies being very explicit when endorsing the amparo appeal of former minister Dolors Bassa, for which he is the rapporteur, so that the decision derived from the Supreme Court is to apply the amnesty. That is to say, he explicitly states that he does not want to leave any room for maneuver for the investigating magistrate, Pablo Llarena, and the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court to disobey his ruling. In fact, from the Supreme Court, they have also challenged them, informally, to do so.
The background screen
While all this is happening, at various tables (there are about twenty in the room) a background murmur can be heard. At this reporter's table, where there is a group of veteran court columnists, they shift in their chairs when Conde-Pumpido justifies the TC's capacity to question the interpretations that the Supreme Court makes of ordinary legislation —such as, for example, the crime of embezzlement— when there is an impact on fundamental rights. A very controversial issue, already traditional in the legal world, and which has skyrocketed in the case of the amnesty.
The most curious thing about the talk, however, is to look at the screen in the room accompanying the highlights of the breakfast with archive images. The organization decided that stock footage of meetings of the Constitutional Court's chamber would follow one another, but not only that: during Conde-Pumpido's speech, former president Carles Puigdemont appears giving speeches, and even the legendary meeting that the former president held in Brussels with Santos Cerdán, the now ousted former number three of the PSOE, regarding the negotiation for Pedro Sánchez's investiture. At one specific moment, one can even see Puigdemont combing his cat at the House of the Republic, images captured in Waterloo by ACN journalist Nico Tomás just after the fleeting return to Barcelona on August 9, 2024.
The iconography was nonetheless curious, especially because of who was speaking on the podium, the president of the Constitutional Court, and because of what he was defending: the decision to constitutionally endorse the amnesty for the Procés. All in all, on the day that marks nine years since the October 1st referendum.