Oriol Junqueras celebrated this Tuesday the application of the amnesty with a vindication of dialogue and the recovery of their rights. "Politics returns to the realm of politics because it leaves the realm of judicialization and repression," affirmed the president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in an appearance at the party's headquarters in Barcelona.
The Supreme Court has declared their criminal liability and that of former ministers Dolors Bassa, Raül Romeva, and Jordi Turull extinguished, by applying the amnesty to the embezzlement for which they were convicted in the procés case. The decision lifts the disqualification penalties that still weighed on them and allows them to run again in elections and hold public office.
Junqueras also emphasized a personal consequence, the possibility of returning to work as a university professor. "They had no need to prevent us from doing our work, from being able to teach at the university. If they did it, it's because they have been and are very afraid of us. And let me clarify that they are right to be," he maintained, accompanied by Bassa and Romeva.
His first reaction had come through X, where he wrote in Catalan "Finally justice has been done where there was only injustice", followed by the words "Ambition. Country. Future". ERC has claimed the decision as "a victory for independence" and as a result of its political persistence to achieve the application of the law.
Per fi s’ha fet justícia allà on només hi havia injustícia.
— Oriol Junqueras 🎗️ (@junqueras) October 20, 2026
Ambició. País. FUTUR.
A new political stage
In the courtyard of the republican headquarters, before leaders and dozens of militants, Junqueras has defended that ERC's commitment to Catalonia remains intact. He has placed the construction of democratic, political, and social majorities among his party's priorities and has criticized the State's actions. After recalling that several members of his family were accused of sedition and rebellion, he stated that acting this way "generation after generation" demonstrates, in his opinion, that it is "a failed State in many senses".
Dolors Bassa has thanked the work of those who have maintained the claim during these years and has recalled the uncertainty about when their judicial situation would end. "We changed sedition, removed a few crimes from the Penal Code, achieved pardons, but above all we achieved amnesty," she enumerated. The former minister has celebrated the change of stage and has reiterated that ERC's objective continues to be independence.
Raül Romeva has described the decision as a "point of no return" and has remembered the anonymous people to whom amnesty has not yet been applied. He has also reaffirmed his political convictions. "We continue to think, we continue to defend, we continue to believe that what we did was necessary, it was legitimate, it is useful and, furthermore, it is irreversible," he declared.
From Junts, Jordi Turull has also celebrated his amnesty and has demanded that the application of the law be "total", so that it also reaches Carles Puigdemont and former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig. The general secretary of the formation has presented the resolution as another victory for independence and has asked to complete the pending procedures.
From pardon to the 29N lists
The resolution comes nine years after the referendum of October 1, 2017 and seven after the procés sentence. Junqueras was sentenced in October 2019 to thirteen years in prison and disqualification for sedition and embezzlement. The pardon approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez in June 2021 allowed him to leave prison, but maintained the disqualification, which in his case extended until 2031.
The amnesty law came into force in June 2024, although the Supreme Court initially refused to apply it to the embezzlement of these leaders, finding a personal patrimonial benefit. The Constitutional Court corrected that interpretation last October 6, when resolving the appeal of Dolors Bassa. The Supreme Court has now applied that doctrine and has extinguished the criminal liabilities, although it has accompanied its decision with criticism of the reasoning of the court of guarantees.
The lifting of the disqualification also has an immediate electoral consequence. Junqueras, Romeva and Bassa will close the candidacy headed by Gabriel Rufián in symbolic positions, as reported by SER Catalunya. The information places this incorporation within the period for preparing the lists for the general elections on November 29, with Junqueras maintaining his aspiration to be a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat.
The appearance has also brought together the general secretary of ERC, Elisenda Alamany; former president Pere Aragonès and MEP Diana Riba. Rufián arrived later, at the beginning of the National Council convened this Tuesday to ratify the electoral candidacies.
