The Constitutional Court has ordered the Supreme Court to apply the amnesty law in a case linked to former Catalan minister Dolors Bassa. The ruling changed Carles Puigdemont's immediate legal position ahead of the 29-N general election.
Félix Bolaños told Ser in an interview that Puigdemont could return to Catalonia today without being arrested. The decision, he said, is Puigdemont's to make.
There is no timetable. Pablo Llarena lifted the national detention order against the former Generalitat president as an interim measure, pending a new judicial decision. The case remains open, and Puigdemont has spent almost nine years outside Spain.
The order was not a final ruling. It did not close the proceedings or grant Puigdemont an individual amnesty.
RTVE reported that the Constitutional Court told the Supreme Court to examine the amnesty question urgently and as a priority. The case concerns Bassa and an embezzlement charge linked to the independence process.
The government is presenting the ruling as part of a wider political record. Bolaños says the pardons granted during the previous legislature and the amnesty approved in 2024 were aimed at Catalan society, not just named politicians.
That is the election message.
He argues that the political cost paid by Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE should be weighed against what he calls a new period of coexistence in Catalonia. Bolaños says people on opposing sides can now negotiate and reach agreements.
He did not claim the measures were broadly accepted. They faced strong opposition when adopted.
The legal route remains disputed. The government negotiated the amnesty with parliamentary groups that supported its investiture, including Junts and ERC. Approval required an absolute majority.
The law addressed the independence movement that erupted in 2017 under Mariano Rajoy. It passed in 2024.
Puigdemont's position changed after the court ruling. An earlier court report explained how the decision could affect his return and guide the judges handling the case.
Llarena also lifted the national detention orders against former Catalan ministers Antoni Comín and Lluís Puig. Those measures remain subject to a new judicial decision.
For now, the immediate risk is gone.
The PP and Vox have attacked the amnesty at street demonstrations. They say it was unconstitutional and breached European law, and argue that it damaged the separation of powers. Bolaños rejects those claims and says events have disproved them.
His argument is direct: the opposition's basic criticism has become part of the government's case for the policy.
Catalonia also carries electoral weight. The Socialists hold a wide seat advantage over the PP there. That makes the government's defence more than a review of past decisions.
It is an appeal to a region that could shape the next parliamentary result. The government wants voters to judge the amnesty by its claimed effect on coexistence, rather than by the conflict that surrounded its approval.
In the government's account, the amnesty and pardons have delivered the result Sánchez and Bolaños promised. They removed institutional barriers and opened a possible route for Puigdemont to return without arrest.
The opposition rejects that reading. Still, the legal position has shifted in the government's direction.
Madrid is now presenting the Catalan conflict as politically normalised. It is making that case to voters in a region with major electoral weight.
Puigdemont's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, has said his client does not plan to return until the Supreme Court definitively applies the amnesty and concludes the proceedings. Junts has taken the same cautious position.
The absence of an active national detention order does not settle every legal question. Puigdemont can enter Spain without that order, but the Supreme Court will decide whether his case is fully closed.
