Oriol Junqueras, president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), remains unable to stand in an election while the Constitutional Court considers his appeal against the Supreme Court’s refusal to apply the amnesty to part of his conviction.

For ERC voters, this means the party cannot currently put its president forward as a candidate for the Generalitat presidency. Junqueras’s stated aim of leading ERC at the next Catalan election depends on the legal proceedings changing his electoral status.

The Constitutional Court has rejected Junqueras’s request for a provisional suspension of his disqualification, according to reports on the court’s decision. The same request was also rejected for Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa.

The court found no “real and proven” irreparable harm that required an interim lifting of the disqualifications, describing the claimed harm as hypothetical because no election was imminent.

Appeal concerns the application of the amnesty

The appeal concerns the Supreme Court’s decision not to apply the amnesty to conduct connected to embezzlement in the Catalan independence process. The Constitutional Court has not yet ruled on the substance of that appeal.

  • The Supreme Court conviction imposed disqualifications from public office of between 12 and 13 years on the appellants, according to the reporting on the Constitutional Court’s decision.
  • Junqueras remains unable to stand as a candidate until 2031 unless his legal position changes, La Razón reported after the court’s interim ruling.
  • The Constitutional Court said granting the request now would risk deciding the merits of the constitutional appeals in advance.

The proceedings follow events surrounding the 1 October 2017 referendum and the subsequent declaration of independence. The Supreme Court has maintained that the amnesty does not cover the embezzlement-related elements of the convictions.

Earlier ruling confirmed electoral ineligibility

An official Constitutional Court judgment published in the BOE, Spain’s official state gazette, recorded that electoral authorities had refused to proclaim Junqueras as a candidate in elections to the Congress of Deputies because of his prison sentence. The judgment, numbered 50/2024 and dated 8 April 2024, upheld his ineligibility in that case.

Junqueras’s current appeal challenges the non-application of the amnesty rather than that 2024 judgment. Until the Constitutional Court decides the appeal, the disqualification remains in force.

Primary sources: boe.es, TRIBUNAL CONSTITUCIONAL. Reported by Source Text Link, Eduardo Parra / Europa Press, larazon.es, Ricardo Rubio, José María Brunet, elmundo.es, Mireia Esteve, en.wikipedia.org, catalannews.com, Nura Portella, David Miró, Àngels Piñol, Marcos Lamelas, lavanguardia.com, Arturo Puente, David Expósito J., naciodigital.cat.