"In this new phase, we do not think a Catalan unity government is convenient. We must consolidate the institutions and accustom the country to the presidency of the Generalitat, but the time has come to govern". He probably did not imagine he would do so for 23 consecutive years, but the day after the 1980 elections, a triumphant Jordi Pujol was already beginning to envision that his main mission should be the creation of autonomous Catalonia. This year marks 46 years since Pujol was invested president, and it so happens that he has now been out of government for as many years as he spent at the head of the Generalitat.

The independence movement scored a point in its legal battle against the Spanish judiciary when, in 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) admitted the possibility of denying a European arrest warrant in very specific circumstances: as declared by the Luxembourg Court, a judge can refuse extradition due to evidence of "generalized deficiencies" in the judicial system and a risk of persecution against individuals from a specific group.

Quim Torra was the first Catalan president to be forced to from office by the courts. His refusal to remove a banner in solidarity with political prisoners and exiles cost him the presidency in autumn 2020. The same banner, now object of a second trial, has now cost him an additional fifteen months' ban from office and a €24,000 fine. Torra has ten days to appeal to the Audiencia de Barcelona.

Catalan ex-president Quim Torra was to face his second trial for disobedience this Thursday, for hanging a banner in defence of political prisoners from the Palau de la Generalitat. But in a statement and a video posted on social media, Torra has announced that he will not turn up in court: "Today I will be tried again, but I will not legitimise a new farce, a new repressive staging disguised as justice, with my presence. I ask for protection from international courts, because I do not recognise the legitimacy of the Spanish justice system which does not respect either international treaties or fundamental rights. Catalan pro-independence supporters can only find justice in Europe," he said.

The Constitutional Court (CC) rejected on February 23 the appeal by former Catalan president Quim Torra against his sentence for disobedience after having initially kept up a banner in support of political prisoners on the balcony of the Generalitat during the elections in 2019, despite requests by the Central Electoral Board to take them down. Nine days later, the court has released the two dissenting opinions, by Juan Antonio Xiol and Ramón Sáez, who opposed dismissing the appeal after the high court concluded that Torra was not barred from office "due to his ideas" but because he did not comply with requests by the Central Electoral Board.

The pardons only affects the 9 politicians sentenced to prison in the trial of the Catalan independence bid, which was heard in the Supreme Court in the first half of 2019. Therefore, it leaves out all the rest of the open cases against thousands of people, about 3,000 according to the calculations of Òmnium Cultural. These have been kept alive in different courts and institutions of the State administration, such as the Court of Auditors. Defusing them will be one of the challenges of the new stage of dialogue between the Spanish and Catalan governments. This is a summary of the main pending cases:

The Prosecutor's Office is seeking a 20-month ban form public office and a €30,000 fine for former Catalan president Quim Torra for not taking down a banner supporting political prisoners from the balcony of the Generalitat in September 2019. He stands accused of disobedience, since the the Catalan High Court gave him 48 hours to take down the banner and the former president did not do so claiming that the order violated freedom of expression. Finally the court ordered the Mossos d'Esquadra to remove it, although Generalitat staff removed it first.

Despite the fact that it has already been six months since former Catalan president Quim Torra left the political front line, court cases continue to accumulate. One of them is the dispute that he maintains with the Central Electoral Board for initially refusing to withdraw banners and symbols in favour of the freedom for political prisoners from the administration's building during the electoral campaign of March 2019. The Electoral Board now demands payment of a €8,500 fine and Torra has formally communicated this Wednesday, after receiving the requirement, that he does not intend to pay. "I will not voluntarily pay these fines. They are part of the plundering disguised as legality that for years, decades and centuries the Spanish state has been executing in the Països Catalans," he said in a statement.

Quim Torra is one step away from being tried for the second time for not having taken down the banner in support of political prisoners from the Palau de la Generalitat in September 2019, as ordered by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) following an appeal by the entity Impulso Ciudadano. The Court of Barcelona has dismissed the appeal of the former president of the Generalitat and has endorsed his prosecution for a crime of disobedience. Now the parties will have to present their briefs of accusation and defense. Torra was already convicted of the same crime by the High Court for not having unhooked the same banner in March 2019 after the requirements of the Central Electoral Board (JEC). His disqualification became firm in September last year, when it was ratified by the Supreme Court.

The Central Electoral Board (JEC) was able to leave Quim Torra without a seat on 3 January 2020, as confirmed on Friday by the fourth administrative contentious chamber of the Supreme Court. Torra lost his seat despite the fact that he did not have a final conviction (confirmed by the Supreme Court at the end of September) and that he continued to serve as president of the Generalitat for nine months. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal lodged by the Parliament, which argued that, without a final sentence, only the Catalan parliament can remove a deputy from his seat. Moreover, the appeal questioned the competence of the CEC to take such a decision, since it came outside the electoral process.