Ben Pawlowski
THOUSANDS of pro-independence supporters took to the streets of Barcelona, the Catalan capital, on Saturday in protest against the ‘non-implementation’ of the highly controversial amnesty law for key separatist leaders, including the former regional president and fugitive from Spanish justice, Carles Puigdemont.
According to local police, 1,500 protestors rallied in Ciutat Vella, Barcelona’s old town, before congregating at the doors of the Catalan government’s headquarters.
Demonstrators waved the senyera, the Catalan colours, chanted pro-independence slogans and throwed dry bread crusts in front of the regional government building as anger over the non-application of the amnesty law for several key separatist leaders came to the boil.
The separatist movement, known in Spain as the ‘process’, infamously reached its nadir in 2017 with an illegal referendum and a unilateral declaration of independence.
Last month, Spain’s Congress formally approved a highly contentious amnesty law which sought to withdraw legal action brought against Catalan nationalists for their role in the fiasco.
The conservative, pro-independence Junts party, of which Puigdemont is leader, and left-wing Esquerra (ERC) had demanded the law in exchange for giving Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister, the parliamentary support required to command a majority in Congress.
Puigdemont was expected to be the law’s highest profile beneficiary and had been planning to return to Catalunya as a candidate for the regional parliament’s investiture vote following May’s inconclusive local elections.
However, Spain’s Supreme Court rejected amnesty for the crime of misusing public funds, meaning an arrest warrant for the Junts leader remains in force.
The ruling also impacts former ministers Antonio Comin and Lluis Puig who had likewise fled to Belgium after criminal proceedings were opened for their role in the independence movement.
Saturday’s protest, organised by the pro-independence civic group ANC, decried the ruling as a ‘judicial coup’ by anti-independence judges, protesting under the banner: “Disobey the judges. Independence”.
Since coming into force, the law has benefited 74 people – activists are angry that the majority of those who have benefited from the amnesty have been police officers, rather than pro-independence figures for whom the law was designed.
However, several leading Catalan politicians have been allowed to return to Catalonia.
The leader of Esquerra (ERC) Marta Rovira and MP Ruben Wagensberg were among a number of activists who returned to their native regions from Switzerland after criminal proceedings against the Tsunami Democratic protest group were dropped due to a procedural error.
On her return, Rovira said: “We return as we can win, and we return to finish the work that we were not able to finish. We have returned to start again and once more unite pro-independence supporters”.
