The Spanish government, on Puigdemont: “He could return today if he wanted to”

Barcelona / MadridAfter the Constitutional Court's (TC) endorsement of the amnesty for the leaders of the 'Procés', all eyes are on former president Carles Puigdemont. His return to Catalonia, after nine years of exile, wavers between imminence and waiting for the opportune political moment, and it is currently unknown whether he will make it coincide with the campaign for the November 29 general elections. However, Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena has already lifted the arrest warrant that was against him, and the Spanish government recalls that this implies a green light for the former president's return. "Puigdemont could return today if he wanted to," stated the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, in statements to SER this morning. "It is a decision that rests with him," he added.

In his appearance this Tuesday after the TC endorsed the amnesty, Puigdemont did not clarify when and how he plans to return, but his lawyer explained that he will at least wait for the case against him to be archived, which could take several weeks. "There is no specific date for the return because we are waiting for the Supreme Court to definitively close the case," the lawyer said in statements to 3Cat. For the moment, the Constitutional Court has already officially communicated its ruling to the Supreme Court, in which it orders the high court to "urgently" apply the amnesty to the embezzlement charges.

Now it is Llarena who must issue the order concluding the summary of the case and send it to the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court, presided over by Andrés Martínez-Arrieta, and of which Manuel Marchena is also a member. And it will be they who, after hearing the parties – the defenses, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the State Advocacy, and Vox – will order the archiving of the investigation for the application of the amnesty to Puigdemont and the former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig. An outcome that the Moncloa already takes for granted. "There was a part of the judiciary that expressed itself against the amnesty law [...]. From there, the rule of law has functioned. Time has put everything in its place," claimed Bolaños.

Regarding the convicted former ministers, the ball is in Manuel Marchena's court. The judge who presided over the Procés trial will have to draft the resolution to apply the amnesty to Dolors Bassa and will have to decide whether to propose extending it to the rest of the convicted individuals or wait for the sentences of the amparo appeals of Jordi Turull, Oriol Junqueras, and Raül Romeva to arrive individually. Mind you, he will first give the parties a five-day period to express their views. Pablo Llarena, for his part, has not needed the ruling on Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín, and Lluís Puig to lift his arrest warrants. Solvent sources from the Supreme Court consulted by the ARA make it clear that the disqualification penalty, at least that of the former Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Families, “will certainly be lifted” before Monday, October 26, which is the deadline for submitting candidacies for the 29-N election.

In this morning's interview, Minister Bolaños boasted about the effects that, in his view, the amnesty has had, which he insisted was not directed at any "person" in particular. According to him, thanks to "brave" and "highly contested" measures like this one, the Spanish government has achieved "normalization" in Catalonia after the turbulent years of the Procés. "Normalization is absolute," he went as far as to say, and he referred to the latest CIS barometer, which points out that only "0.2% of the population considers the potential independence of Catalonia to be a problem." "This problem no longer exists, and we have achieved it, the government of Pedro Sánchez," he said.