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Several Catalan separatists return to Spain after amnesty

Marta Rovira, one of several Catalan separatist leaders who fled Spain to avoid prosecution over a failed 2017 independence bid, returned home Friday thanks to a new amnesty law.

Published: 12 July 2024 13:55 CEST
Several Catalan separatists return to Spain after amnesty
A Spanish police officer gives exiled Marta Rovira directions. (Photo by Oscar DEL POZO / AFP)

Rovira, secretary general of Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), a moderate separatist Catalan party, moved to live in Switzerland in March 2018 and has lived there since.

She returned to Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, crossing the border with France on foot and raising a victorious fist in the air, images on public television showed.

She was accompanied by several others sought by the authorities, including Ruben Wagensberg, another ERC lawmaker who also benefitted from the amnesty passed by parliament on May 30 in a bid to draw a line under years of efforts to prosecute those involved in the separatist bid.

“I have dreamt of this moment so many times.. Today is an absolute victory and we have to celebrate,” she told a news conference, vowing to carry on the fight for independence.

“We are here to finish the job we started… We will win our eternal freedom and that of our people.”

Officials say some 400 people are expected to benefit from the amnesty on offences linked to the botched secession bid, which sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Rovira had been facing a disobedience charge which was covered by the amnesty, but she was also wanted in connection with a “street terror” probe into a string of mass protests by a group called Democratic Tsunami after the 2019 jailing of 13 independence leaders.

That case — which also implicated Wagensberg and former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont — was closed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Puigdemont – who led the secession bid and fled Spain for Belgium in 2017 – has also been hoping to benefit from the amnesty law but his return has been complicated by legal issues.

In a posting on X, he hailed their return.

“With the return of the exiles… an injustice ends,” he wrote. “We all neet to get to work as soon as possible because there is a lot to be done.”

On July 1st, the Supreme Court ruled that the amnesty did not apply to several charges against Puigdemont, notably a misuse of public funds offence.

The Spanish public prosecutor’s office has appealed against the ruling as has Puigdemont himself.

He is also wanted on charges of high treason, another offence that does not fall within the scope of the amnesty law.

Blocking the amnesty for Puigdemont could complicate life of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez who promoted the measure in exchange for the separatist parties’ parliamentary support to secure a new term in office.

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MONEY

‘Fewer Lamborghinis’: Spain’s PM aims to tax the super-rich more 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced that his government is planning higher taxes for those "with enough money to live 100 lives", which could mean a higher income tax than the current maximum of 47 percent.

Published: 5 September 2024 12:05 CEST
'Fewer Lamborghinis': Spain's PM aims to tax the super-rich more 

Sánchez kicked off the political year on Wednesday September 4th with a press conference in which he announced “new measures aimed at limiting the disproportionate privileges that certain elites in the country have and benefit from.”

“We are going to tax those who already have enough money in the bank to live a hundred lives,” Sánchez told journalists at the Cervantes Institute.

“We will do this, I repeat, not to harm millionaires, but to protect the middle and working classes from a system that continues to be extraordinarily unfair,” the PSOE leader said.

For Sánchez, “regardless of what some people think, Spain will be a better country if it has more electric cars, made in Spain, more public buses and, therefore, more public transport and fewer Lamborghinis.”

According to the Spanish PM, a more progressive tax system will be one of the three main axes that the left-wing coalition government will develop in economic matters in this new political year, with taxes “that will increase more for those who have more.”

The highest income tax (IRPF) bracket is currently 47 percent, for those earning above €300,000 a year. People earning between €60,000 and €299,999 have an income tax rate of 45 percent.

The Socialist-led government also introduced the so-called ‘millionaire’ or ‘solidarity’ tax in 2022, a levy on people worth more than €3 million (it’s not a tax on income but rather on assets and holdings). There is also a wealth tax which varies based on the region and the residency status.

READ ALSO: How wealthy people in Spain are avoiding the millionaire tax

Sánchez has not yet specified how much income is ‘enough to live a hundred lives’, nor if the planned measures will include higher-income earners than aren’t millionaires but have above average salaries. 

In Spain, there are 5 million people who earn above €3,673 gross a month, a figure from the French Observatory of Inequalities (relating to Spain) and cited in Forbes as being the threshold for being classified as ‘rich’ in Spain.

When Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo was asked on Onda Cero radio station to disclose more about what the Spanish premier was planning, he hinted the main focus will be the super-rich. 

For political opponent and far-right Vox leader Santiago Abascal, Sánchez’s aim is “destroying the middle classes” rather than having anything against “Lamborghinis” and the wealthy.

Similarly, the country’s right-wing media has been critical with the PM’s announcement, claiming that he wants to “kick the rich out of Spain” or distract from increasing poverty in the country.

People with incomes above €600,000 a year represent only 0.07 percent of the population in Spain, contributing around 7.57 percent of taxes to public coffers.

On the other hand, the middle classes – those with an income between €30,000 and €60,000 – make up around 21 percent of the population and their taxes add up to 36.8 percent of the total. 

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