The Constitutional Court has weakened the legal barrier to Carles Puigdemont’s return. His arrest order is suspended, yet the amnesty still requires a separate court decision.
Pablo Llarena suspended the national arrest order after the Constitutional Court ruled on Dolors Bassa’s case. The decision allows Carles Puigdemont to enter Spain without facing the order that had blocked his return. It does not formally grant him amnesty. The Supreme Court still has to decide what happens to his pending case.
According to Reuters, the ruling removes a major legal obstacle while leaving the proceedings alive. Llarena also suspended the orders against former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, but only until a new express judicial decision. The measure does not close the proceedings or prevent a fresh order.
When he suspended the warrants, Pablo Llarena said he had not yet received the full text of the Constitutional Court’s ruling in the Dolors Bassa case. Once he receives it, he must issue a separate reasoned decision confirming or changing the measure.
Puigdemont is now closer to returning than at any point since he left Catalonia in October 2017. He has not announced a date. Junts sources say he will wait until Spanish courts apply the amnesty law fully.
The Spanish General Council of the Judiciary has also described the suspension as a procedural measure pending further judicial consideration. It is not a final ruling on his criminal liability.
The legal shift began with a case brought by former minister Dolors Bassa. The Constitutional Court ruled that the Supreme Court’s interpretation, which excluded embezzlement from the amnesty, violated her right to effective judicial protection. The ruling does not directly concern Puigdemont, but it establishes a legal criterion for his own appeal.
Puigdemont remains processed for alleged embezzlement tied to the expenses of the illegal 1-O referendum. He was never tried because he left Spain. Oriol Junqueras was tried in the same broader case. Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa also remained in Spain for the proceedings.
The Constitutional Court still describes Puigdemont as the “presumed author of a crime of embezzlement of public funds”.
The dispute turns on the 2024 amnesty law’s exception for embezzlement. The Constitutional Court held that excluding public-funds offences from amnesty is contrary to the law’s purpose when the alleged conduct did not involve personal enrichment, a reading that could affect other Catalan leaders as well as Puigdemont.
When the amnesty law came into force, Llarena rejected its application to the embezzlement charge because he considered that offence covered by the law’s exceptions. He did accept amnesty for the separate disobedience charge. Puigdemont appealed to the Constitutional Court, whose decision remains pending even after the ruling in Bassa’s case.
The Supreme Court has given the parties five days to submit arguments before deciding how the amnesty should apply. Llarena will handle Puigdemont, Comín and Puig because they were processed but not convicted. The Criminal Chamber will decide the position of leaders who were convicted.
Bassa’s ruling puts additional pressure on the Supreme Court to revisit its earlier interpretation. It does not automatically grant amnesty to every defendant.
That timetable explains why Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, has advised against an immediate return. He says the situation is considerably clearer than last week but remains unsettled. A new prison order or a summons before the Supreme Court could still follow.
Puigdemont has returned to Spain only once since his departure. In August 2024, he appeared briefly in Barcelona on the day Salvador Illa was sworn in as president of the Generalitat. He then left the country again without being arrested.
The Constitutional Court ruling could also affect Junqueras, Romeva and Turull. They remain barred from holding office until 2031 because the 2021 pardons removed their prison sentences but not their disqualifications. If the embezzlement charge is amnestied, that disqualification would disappear.
The same legal process will determine what happens to Comín and Puig, whose national arrest orders were also suspended.
A return would allow Puigdemont to resume in-person activity in Catalonia after almost nine years in Belgium. He remains a member of the Catalan Parliament and has delegated his vote. He could also stand in the general election scheduled for 29 November because he is neither convicted nor disqualified.
Puigdemont has welcomed the application of amnesty while cautioning, as reported by Euronews, that amnesty alone cannot resolve the wider Catalan political conflict.
The move comes amid a sharp breakdown between Junts and the PSOE. Junts announced its rupture with the Socialists in October 2025 and later voted against government measures, including the housing decrees. Jordi Turull has ruled out supporting Pedro Sánchez in a possible post-election investiture.
Junts is preparing lists headed in Barcelona by Miriam Nogueras and in Girona by Marta Madrenas. Isidre Gavín will head the list in Lleida. Josep Maria Cruset will lead it in Tarragona.
Puigdemont can now enter Spain without a national arrest order in force. The Constitutional Court has weakened the basis for excluding embezzlement from the amnesty, while Llarena’s order remains conditional and the case is still pending.
