The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Thursday that Spain’s 2024 amnesty law for Catalan separatists is compatible with EU legislation, a decision that removes a significant legal hurdle for the return of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. The Luxembourg-based court found that the law, which extinguishes criminal and administrative liability for acts linked to the failed 2017 independence bid, “seeks to reduce institutional and political tensions and to facilitate a scenario for reconciliation.” The ruling addressed two prejudicial questions, determining that the amnesty does not harm the EU’s financial interests nor breach the bloc’s anti-terrorism directive, as it excludes acts that caused serious harm.

Reactions from Madrid and Barcelona underscored the deep divisions the law continues to provoke. Spanish justice minister Félix Bolaños declared that the amnesty “is in conformity with European law” and argued that its effects of political normalisation in Catalonia have been positive. Catalan president Salvador Illa, a socialist, urged courts to apply the measure “diligently, integrally and without subterfuges.” From the separatist camp, Junts secretary-general Jordi Turull called the ruling a “resounding victory” and pressed the Spanish Constitutional Court to “resolve now” the question of whether embezzlement charges against Puigdemont can be covered by the amnesty. Puigdemont himself, still in self-imposed exile in Belgium, said the moment had come to “recover forces and resources to focus on the main objective of independence.” The conservative opposition Popular Party countered that “no decision absolves the extremely serious irresponsibility committed by separatism” and maintained that no president should “trade power for impunity.”

The practical effect of the ruling is to bind the Spanish courts that had raised the prejudicial questions, but it does not automatically lift the national arrest warrant against Puigdemont. The Spanish Supreme Court had previously excluded him from the amnesty on the grounds that the embezzlement he is accused of involved personal benefit and affected EU financial interests—an interpretation the EU court’s reasoning now calls into question. The final word rests with Spain’s Constitutional Court, which is expected to rule in the coming months on whether the embezzlement charge can be amnestied. Until then, Puigdemont’s return remains pending, though his legal team argues that the Supreme Court can now act of its own motion.

The EU court’s decision lands at a moment of acute political fragility for prime minister Pedro Sánchez, whose minority government faces a cascade of judicial proceedings involving his family and former allies. On the same day, a Madrid appeals court confirmed that Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, will stand trial for influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds, while dropping charges of corruption in business and lifting a travel ban. The case, brought by a far-right-linked anti-corruption group, centres on a university chair she co-directed. It follows the sentencing of Sánchez’s brother to a nine-year ban from public office for using his family connection to obtain a public-sector job, and the conviction of a former transport minister to 24 years in prison. The amnesty ruling thus offers the government a symbolic legal victory even as the broader judicial pressure on the executive intensifies. The date for Gómez’s trial has not yet been set, and the Constitutional Court’s decision on Puigdemont’s amnesty remains the next decisive step in the Catalan dossier.