Spain's Constitutional Court Overturns Key Verdicts Against Politicians. Spain's Constitutional Court has ruled that prosecuting politicians for parliamentary decisions is unlawful. This decision impacts the ERE case in Andalusia and the Atutxa case in the Basque Country.
A new round of debate over the boundaries of judicial power has erupted in Spain after the Constitutional Court in 2024 overturned a number of key verdicts against politicians related to the approval of parliamentary decisions. The most high-profile case was the review of the ERE case in Andalusia, where former Junta president José Antonio Griñán and other senior officials had previously been convicted. The court ruled that criminal liability cannot be applied to actions approved by parliament, as such decisions fall within the realm of legislative sovereignty.
Previously, in the ERE case, lower courts and the Supreme Court interpreted the law as strictly as possible, resulting in accusations of overreach and violation of the separation of powers principle. The Constitutional Court, on the other hand, pointed to the inadmissibility of criminal prosecution for parliamentary acts, stressing that such practices undermine the foundations of representative democracy. A similar situation arose in the Basque Country: after Batasuna was banned, parliamentary speaker Juan María Atutxa refused to dissolve the parliamentary group and was convicted by the Supreme Court for this. However, in 2017 the European Court of Human Rights recognized this as a violation of rights, setting a precedent for subsequent decisions.
The author of the book "Visto para sentencia," José Antonio Martín Pallín, a former Supreme Court judge, analyzes how such cases have become part of a broader trend: courts are increasingly using expansive interpretations of the law to prosecute politicians, primarily those with leftist and nationalist views. In his opinion, this practice has intensified amid the country’s political polarization. The book also examines other high-profile Supreme Court decisions in detail — from the appointment of Dolores Delgado to the sentencing of MP Alberto Rodríguez and former Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz.
Special attention is paid to the role of accusations from far-right organizations and the influence of right-wing media, which actively support such proceedings. As a result, according to the author, there is a persistent trend toward the politicization of justice, which is causing concern among parts of the legal community. The article also notes that similar conflicts between the judiciary and the legislature are found in other European countries, as was recently the case in the legal dispute between Renfe and Óscar Puente, previously reported by russpain.com.
For reference: the ERE case became one of the largest corruption scandals in modern Spain, and its review by the Constitutional Court could influence the approach to holding politicians accountable for decisions made within parliamentary procedures. Decisions in the Atutxa case and other similar proceedings are establishing new legal practices that limit the possibility of criminal prosecution for political actions if they have been approved by parliament. According to several experts, this could be an important step towards strengthening the balance between branches of power and reducing the politicization of the courts.
