Will Carles Puigdemont, Clara Ponsatí and Toni Comin soon be tried in Spain? The General Court of the European Union took a new step towards this scenario, this Wednesday, July 5. The court confirmed its decision to lift the immunity of these Catalan separatist MEPs. First pronounced in 2021, this lifting had so far been put on hold by an appeal by the three accused politicians.
Carles Puigdemont and the two former members of his government are implicated for having organized a referendum of self-determination of Catalonia and declared the independence of the region, six years ago. Clara Ponsatí and Toni Comin are close to Carles Puigdemont and were Catalan “ministers” during the events of 2017. All three are being prosecuted for “disobedience” and “rebellion”, Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comin are also implicated for “misappropriation of public funds”. In January 2023, a reform of the Spanish Penal Code removing the offense of “sedition” had forced justice to abandon this main charge, which promised an even more severe potential sentence.
After the summary proceedings linked to the action brought in the summer of 2021, the General Court, established in Luxembourg, rejected on Wednesday an alleged violation of the principle of impartiality by the European Parliament in this case. This argument was at the heart of the grounds put forward by the three MEPs, in particular because the Parliament allegedly made “errors” in concluding that “the legal proceedings in question were not initiated with the intention of harming the activity of the MEPs “. The Court also added that the European Parliament did not have to examine “the legality of Spanish judicial acts”, reiterating its position from the start. In 2017, the European Union already rejected the idea of mediating in the crisis which it considered “an internal matter”.
This decision of the Tribunal opens the way to a new attempt by Spain to obtain the extradition of MEPs. Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comin have indeed fled Spain to Belgium since 2017 to escape legal proceedings. Clara Ponsati, exiled in Scotland, made her surprise return to Spain in March 2023, where she was arrested and then released after being heard by a court.
Defend your rights “to the end”
In the morning, Carles Puigdemont reacted to the decision of the General Court of the European Union on Twitter. “It is not over. Quite the contrary, it continues. We will appeal ‘to the Court of Justice of the EU’ and we will defend our fundamental rights to the end,” he said. The three MEPs have two months to appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union and initiate a six-month procedure to obtain a new decision from the highest legal institution of the EU.
This new setback in the legal saga of Catalan independence leaders continues to stir up old tensions from one of Spain’s worst political crises since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975 – the fallout from a political standoff that fractured the countries in the fall of 2017.
The independence referendum, at the center of the legal case, was launched on the initiative of the regional government and approved on September 6, 2017 by the Parliament of Catalonia. The next day, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled this popular consultation illegal and the organization of the vote officially cancelled. Despite this, the referendum was maintained on October 1 by the autonomous community of Catalonia, with the question “Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state in the form of a republic?”. The “yes” had then won at 90%.
The national government cracked down immediately by brandishing Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, putting Catalonia under trusteeship and dismissing the Catalan Parliament and its president, Carles Puigdemont. The political leaders held responsible for this “illegal” referendum and the proclamation of independence have been charged with “rebellion, sedition, embezzlement of public funds and disobedience to authority”. And not all of them met the same fate as Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Clara Ponsatí. Former Catalan leaders and MEPs who have not fled the country are serving heavy prison sentences and have had their European mandate withdrawn after their conviction.