The Supreme pardons the first minister of the 1-O government

MadridThe Supreme Court continues to apply the amnesty law drop by drop and after many months of waiting. The high court has now applied it to the first minister of the 1-O government: Meritxell Serret, who was convicted by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) to one year of disqualification and a fine of 12,000 euros for her participation in the organization of the October 1st referendum. In 2017, Serret was Minister of Agriculture. She later became Minister of Foreign Action with the government of Pere Aragonès and, subsequently, was the Government's delegate in Brussels while in exile. She returned to Catalonia in March 2021. “This chamber has decided that the acts for which she has been accused are declared amnestied,” concludes the Supreme Court's order to which ARA has had access. In this way, the former minister is exempted from all criminal responsibilities attributed to her.

A few hours later, the same court has also applied the amnesty to the four pro-independence members of the Parliament's bureau in the legislature that culminated in the October 1st referendum and which was chaired by Carme Forcadell: Lluís Corominas, Lluís Guinó, Anna Simó, and Ramona Barrufet. They were convicted of disobedience to one year and eight months of disqualification and a fine of 30,000 euros for having processed the disconnection laws.

Those still waiting are three individuals convicted in the Supreme Court trial: Josep Rull, Carme Forcadell, and Joaquim Forn. They were pardoned in June 2021 and were able to leave prison. They were not convicted of embezzlement and, therefore, after the repeal of sedition, they ceased to be disqualified, which has allowed – for example – Rull to run in the 12-M elections of 2024 and be elected President of the Parliament. Two years ago, they asked the Supreme Court to suspend their criminal records for the crime of disobedience, but the high court has not yet ruled. On the other hand, Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart declined to apply for the amnesty.

ERC celebrates the Supreme Court's decision

After the first decision became known, Meritxell Serret expressed satisfaction with the outcome of her case, but asked that the law "apply to everyone" who is still awaiting it. "It must be fully complied with, there are no longer any excuses for continuing to delay its application or the restitution of all political rights," she said in a thread on X. And she called for "continuing to advance towards a democratic solution" to the political conflict between Catalonia and the State. "The objective must be for it to be resolved, not for it to become entrenched or worsen," she had stated early this morning on SER Catalunya.

For their part, ERC has celebrated the Supreme Court's decision and has boasted that, with this decision, "the solid strategy" followed with the amnesty law "is validated". The republicans claim that, after the "forceful ruling" of the ECJ, it was "inevitable that finally" the Supreme Court "would do what it should have done from day one", apply the amnesty law, which came into force in June 2024. "This is precisely what must happen immediately with the rest of the cases," they add.

On the part of the Government, and in the context of his tour of Vietnam, President Salvador Illa has admitted that he would like to see "more and faster" amnesties and has recalled that the executive is still awaiting a response to the document it sent to the Court of Auditors requesting the application of the measure: "It is what we had to do", he defended in statements to the media.

Later, the amnesty for the members of the Bureau of the Parliament of October 1st arrived. The application of the law, in this case, nullifies their conviction for having "openly refused for two years" to comply with the Constitutional Court's resolutions. The High Court of Justice of Catalonia maintained that they had to prevent the debate and voting of the laws that were to serve as the legal framework for October 1st because they had warnings from the courts that the norms intended to "violate" the constitutional order: "There is no doubt that their purpose was to break, fail to comply with, and transgress the provisions and requirements of the Constitutional Court," it argued. Hours later, Anna Simó celebrated the news: "Strong organizations are needed that know what they are doing and that accompany those who commit to it".

Nine months after the Constitutional Court's endorsement

The Supreme Court's decision comes eleven days after the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that endorsed the amnesty. Months ago, the high court froze the cases it had on its agenda – appeals against rulings originating from Catalonia – alleging that it wanted to wait for the Constitutional Court to resolve the question of unconstitutionality that it had filed in the case of a demonstrator from Girona. The Constitutional Court's ruling arrived in October last year, but the Supreme Court has kept the decisions shelved for nine months awaiting the opinion from Luxembourg. And now it has opened the tap to resolve all cases.

Last week, the Supreme Court already applied the amnesty to eight independence supporters who were pending it: three demonstrators convicted of aggravated public disorder in the protests following the ruling on the trial of the Procés, the former mayor of Sabadell Maties Serracant (CUP) and the four members of Roger Torrent's Parliament's board who were acquitted of having disobeyed the TC's rulings.