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First pardons granted under Spain’s amnesty for Catalan separatists

A politician and police officer on Tuesday became the first people to benefit from Spain's divisive amnesty law for Catalan separatists involved in a botched 2017 secession bid.

Published: 26 June 2024 07:58 CEST
First pardons granted under Spain's amnesty for Catalan separatists
Miquel Buch (R) will be one of the first to benefit from the Catalan amnesty agreement. Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP

The amnesty law – approved last month – is expected to affect around 400 people facing trial or already convicted over their roles in the wealthy northeastern region’s failed independence push, which triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to grant the amnesty in exchange for the key support of Catalan separatist parties in parliament to secure a new term in office following an inconclusive general election last July.

READ ALSO: Spain’s contested Catalan amnesty bill comes into force

The separatist parties have threatened to withdraw their support for Sánchez’s minority government unless the amnesty is applied.

Catalonia’s High Court said it had decided to “declare the extinction of criminal responsibility” for former Catalan regional interior minister Miquel Buch, as well as to Lluís Escolà, an officer in Catalonia’s regional police force, since the crimes they were convicted of “have been amnestied”.

Buch was sentenced last year to four and a half years in jail for embezzlement and misappropriation for hiring Escolà in 2018 and paying him out of public coffers to act as a bodyguard for the former head of the regional Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, while he was in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Escolà was handed a four-year prison sentence for working as Puigdemont’s bodyguard.

Puigdemont fled Spain to avoid arrest shortly after his government led Catalonia’s failed secession push, which involved an independence referendum that was banned by the courts followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.

Spain’s conservative opposition has staged massive street protests against the amnesty law, which judges must decide to apply on a case-by-case basis.

Puigdemont had said he hopes to return to Spain but there is still a warrant for his arrest and a Spanish court continues to investigate him for the alleged crimes of embezzlement and disobedience related to the secession bid.

He also remains under investigation for alleged terrorism over protests in 2019 against the jailing of several referendum leaders that sometimes turned violent.

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POLITICS

Spain approves its new gender equality law

The Spanish government has given the green light to the gender parity law this Thursday, which will see more women in positions of power.

Published: 27 June 2024 16:51 CEST
Spain approves its new gender equality law

The law was first pre-approved back in March 2023, but ultimately dropped due to the general election taking place in July last year.

It was then re-approved in December 2023 and was forwarded to the Spanish Congress of Deputies to await another vote, before finally given the green light this Thursday.

The parity law aims to guarantee the presence of women in positions of power and means that it will be compulsory for there to be at least a 40 percent representation of women in government, on the boards of directors of large companies, and in constitutional bodies.

READ ALSO: How Spain’s new gender parity law will affect companies and government

It’s also designed to guarantee equal opportunities between men and women, especially in important positions, both in the public and private sectors.  

The bill passed with 177 votes in favour, despite the rejection of PP and Vox, and will now be sent to the Senate, where it is expected to undergo some modifications before final approval and it ultimately coming into force.

READ ALSO: Why do laws in Spain take so long to come into force?

“Today is a great day,” the Spanish Minister for Equality Ana Redondo celebrated at the close of the debate. “A social and historical injustice is removed”, since “there is no merit and capacity without equality”, she continued. 

Socialist deputy Andrea Fernández also praised the law saying it “will allow no girl to grow up ever again without a reference to look to, if she wants to be a magistrate, lawyer, executive, union member, nurse or lawyer”.

Ione Belarra, general secretary of Podemos was happy that the PSOE accepted an amendment from her party to eliminate “men’s quotas”, which means that women can now represent 100 percent of the workforce in the public and private sectors.

The previous draft of the bill had capped the percentage of women in public and private management bodies to 60 percent.

The law will affect those on electoral lists and constitutional bodies, which includes the government, Constitutional Court, Council of State, Fiscal Council and Court of Accounts.

READ ALSO: Spanish govt creates app to highlight gender imbalance in household chores

In terms of the government, it means that 44 percent of the seats in Spain’s Congress and 39 percent in the Senate must be occupied by women.

The Council of Ministers (or Spanish Cabinet) must also have an equal number of men and women, so that each sex must represent at least 40 percent of the total. 

The law will also affect senior management of the state institutional public sector, the administrators of listed companies, and the composition of bodies, as well as boards of directors and large listed companies.

Ibex 35 companies will have until June 30th, 2026 to adapt their management bodies, while the rest of the stock market companies will have until June 30th, 2027 to make sure enough women are represented.

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