EU court upholds Spain’s amnesty law for Catalan separatists

The European Union’s top Court handed a symbolic victory to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday (July 16, 2026), upholding his contested 2024 amnesty law for Catalan separatists involved in a failed secession bid.

The law was passed to secure the backing of Catalan separatist parties so Mr. Sanchez could remain in power after Spain’s inconclusive 2023 general election, and to ease tensions in the north-eastern region following a failed 2017 secession bid. The measure was fiercely opposed by the right, which staged large street protests against it.

The Court of Justice of the European Union agreed with the government’s longstanding argument that the amnesty law complies with EU legislation. “EU law does not preclude the amnesty law. That law seeks to reduce institutional and political tensions and to facilitate a scenario for reconciliation,” the Luxembourg-based Court wrote in its ruling.

The ruling could pave the way for Catalan separatist figurehead Carles Puigdemont to return to Spain ahead of a general election due by 2027. Mr. Puigdemont led Catalonia when it held a banned independence referendum and attempted to secede from Spain in 2017, the country’s worst political crisis in decades. He currently lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Mr. Puigdemont continues to face arrest in Spain, accused of a separate charge of embezzlement that does not come under the amnesty’s remit. Spain’s Constitutional Court is expected to rule in the coming months if the amnesty should apply to this crime as well.