Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena set aside the national search, arrest and detention warrant against Carles Puigdemont. The measure also affects Antoni Comín and Lluís Puig, and all three could return to Spain without entering the country clandestinely.
Documentary confirmation is still lacking. No separate official document from the General Council of the Judiciary has been provided to confirm that the warrants have been lifted.
That gap matters.
The decision came just minutes after the Constitutional Court granted Dolors Bassa relief, ordering the Supreme Court to recognize the amnesty for the embezzlement offense for which she was convicted.
The ruling does not automatically end the case against Puigdemont. He was not tried because he left Spain in 2017. Even so, the decision sets out the standard Llarena will have to apply to his procedural situation.
The basic legal question concerns both the existence of the Amnesty Law and how it applies to each defendant and each offense.
If the warrants are formally lifted, Puigdemont will be able to be in Spain during the campaign for the November 29 general election. He could also stand as a candidate. He was already eligible to run for office while facing charges, as he did in the 2024 Catalan elections.
What would change is his ability to engage in political activity openly inside the country. Until now, the arrest warrant had prevented him from doing so visibly.
The campaign is already underway.
Pedro Sánchez called the election after Junts withheld the votes needed to validate the government’s housing decrees. The People’s Party and Vox also declined to support the measures.
The failure showed that the government lacks a stable parliamentary majority. It also ended a legislature that began with an agreement with Junts and the passage of the Amnesty Law.
If the dissolution decree was published on October 6, the November 29 vote fits the 54-day period set by Spanish electoral law. El País and ABC reported the election timetable.
For Junts, the shift is direct. Carles Puigdemont’s party went from supporting part of the government’s agenda to helping defeat one of its priority measures.
After a Cabinet meeting, Sánchez said the amnesty was designed to resolve a conflict over coexistence and was not intended to benefit any particular party. The prime minister ruled out meeting Puigdemont if the former president returns.
In Valencia, the People’s Party candidate had yet to be confirmed. An earlier report noted the political uncertainty.
The Constitutional Court challenged the Supreme Court’s interpretation, which excluded embezzlement from the amnesty. The Supreme Court’s Criminal Chamber had argued that the leaders of the Catalan independence process gained a personal benefit by using public funds for expenses they would otherwise have paid themselves.
The chamber had also warned that the financial interests of the European Union could be affected. But, the existence and precise scope of a Constitutional Court ruling on Dolors Bassa must be checked against the court’s official text.
The draft ruling written by Cándido Conde-Pumpido rejects both arguments. It finds that the Supreme Court adopted an expansive reading that ran counter to the purpose of the law.
On that basis, it orders the challenged rulings to be annulled and the proceedings to be reopened from an earlier stage. It also directs that the embezzlement offense be declared amnestied as a matter of priority and urgency. This account of the ruling comes from the description included in the supplied material and still needs to be checked against the Constitutional Court’s official judgment.
Jordi Turull’s case has taken a more complicated course. His rapporteur, José María Macías, first submitted a draft opposing relief. A majority of seven justices to five rejected it.
Macías then drafted a proposal in Turull’s favor. He withdrew it before the vote after the majority called for a stronger rebuke of the Supreme Court and wording closer to the Bassa judgment.
The basic outcome remains unchanged.
The Bassa ruling could establish the doctrine the Supreme Court applies to the other leaders convicted in the Catalan independence process, including Oriol Junqueras, Turull, Bassa and Raül Romeva.
Puigdemont, Comín and Puig have been charged but were not tried. For them, the practical effect could be the lifting of the arrest warrants. That cannot be treated as confirmed without Pablo Llarena’s order or an official ruling.
Llarena can act once he formally receives the judgment. He may first open a submissions period for the parties.
The first option would resolve the matter within hours; the second could add several days. The timeline can be established with certainty only once the rulings are published.
The Constitutional Court has shifted the focus of the dispute to how the Supreme Court applies its doctrine. The amnesty law is in force, but its effect on each defendant still depends on official documents.
Since October 2017, Puigdemont has had no judicial route open to returning to Spain and staying there. That possibility could now emerge if the situation described is formally confirmed.
His return could also influence Junts’ election strategy. Spanish media have linked it to an effort to mobilize supporters amid the party’s worsening political prospects.
The decision would make the amnesty an operative measure for the leading figures involved in the Catalan independence process. Its final effect on Puigdemont, Comín and Puig remains pending documents from the Constitutional Court and the General Council of the Judiciary.
