The Spanish Supreme Court challenged the constitutionality of an amnesty law passed by the government earlier this year to help Catalan separatists, according to AP News.
The court cannot overturn the amnesty, but it has asked the country’s Constitutional Court to weigh in. Spain passed an amnesty law in March to help Catalans in trouble with the law over their role in a failed secession attempt in 2017.
The institution stated that the amnesty allegedly violated the principle of equality before the law guaranteed by the Spanish constitution. It said, for example, that the amnesty forgave violent acts committed in the name of Catalan independence, such as stoning during protests, while the same acts committed for other purposes, political or not, were punishable.
The Supreme Court also said the amnesty violated the constitutional principle of legal certainty because it created an expectation that other political activists could break the law without punishment.
However, political opponents claimed the Spanish government granted the amnesty only to attract the support of separatist parties, which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez required to form a new government after elections last year.
The amnesty, which must be applied by judges on a case-by-case basis, will mainly help civil servants and ordinary citizens. However, it is also expected to help former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after a failed attempt to secede the region.
Puigdemont continues to criticise the Spanish government. This time he accused it of favouring the state budget to Madrid, whereas Catalonia remains in last place on the list.
Let’s see if the president of the Spanish Government can explain to the Catalans today the reasons why we are always in the queue for the executions of the State’s budget and on the other hand Madrid is fired, also as always.
