Spanish Supreme Court applies amnesty law to former Catalan official Meritxell Serret
The Supreme Court has extinguished criminal responsibility for Meritxell Serret, the first member of Carles Puigdemont’s 2017 government to benefit from the amnesty law, weeks after the EU Court of Justice validated the legislation.
Court decision
On 27 July 2026, the Criminal Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court declared the acts for which Meritxell Serret was prosecuted to be amnestied, extinguishing all criminal responsibility. Serret had been convicted in April 2023 by the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) to one year of disqualification from public office and a 12,000-euro fine for a crime of serious disobedience. The TSJC sentence stated she was “perfectly aware” of five Constitutional Court warnings not to proceed with the 1 October 2017 independence referendum, which she ignored “consciously and deliberately”. Serret later appealed the conviction through a cassation appeal, which the Supreme Court has now resolved with the amnesty.
It was already inevitable that at last the Supreme Court would do what it should have done from day one: apply the amnesty law approved in Congress.
ERC’s reaction
Esquerra Republicana (ERC), the party to which Serret belongs, welcomed the decision in a statement, saying it validates the party’s strategy behind the amnesty law. The ruling arrived less than two weeks after the EU Court of Justice (TJUE) delivered what ERC described as a forceful endorsement of the law. The party urged the Supreme Court to immediately apply the same standard to all remaining cases linked to the 2017 independence push, restore political rights of all those affected, and enable exiles to return so that the conflict between Catalonia and the Spanish state can be discussed “politically and democratically, without repression”.
Legal journey
The amnesty faced several judicial hurdles. In October 2025, the Constitutional Court rejected a question of unconstitutionality raised by the Supreme Court’s own Criminal Chamber against the amnesty law. That ruling cleared the path for the subsequent TJUE endorsement earlier this month. Serret served as agriculture councillor in Puigdemont’s cabinet during the 2017 referendum and later held the foreign action portfolio under president Pere Aragonès. She is the first former councillor from the Puigdemont government to see her criminal liability lifted under the amnesty.
- Independence referendum held despite Constitutional Court prohibitions.
- High Court of Catalonia convicts Serret of serious disobedience, sentences her to one-year disqualification and 12,000-euro fine.
- Constitutional Court rejects the Supreme Court’s question of unconstitutionality against the amnesty law.
- EU Court of Justice (TJUE) endorses the amnesty law.
- Supreme Court applies the amnesty, extinguishing Serret’s criminal liability.
The timeline now shifts to dozens of other prosecutions. ERC’s call for immediate application of the amnesty across all pending cases reflects mounting pressure on the judiciary to close the legal chapters of the Catalan independence movement.
