In the heart of Catalunya, a storm brews, echoing the clash between economic development and environmental concerns, political manoeuvrings, and the weight of historical grievances. Amidst this backdrop, the looming presence of Carles Puigdemont, the erstwhile symbol of Catalan independence, casts a long shadow, with his potential return to Catalunya contingent upon the passage of an amnesty law currently navigating treacherous political waters. As if grappling with these seismic shifts weren’t enough, the unfolding saga of Case Koldo unfurls a tapestry of corruption allegations that reverberate through the corridors of power, leaving no facet of governance untouched. Analysts are focusing all their efforts on trying to solve the X of this equation and predicting the outcome of this political landscape for Prime minister Pedro Sánchez.

A crisis at a time; What is going on in Catalonia? On the 13th of March, the President de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès (Esquerra Republicana) called early elections following the negative of the Parlament to pass his project for the 2024 budget. This stems mainly from the controversy surrounding the Hard Rock Entertainment World project, a megacasino set to be built in the southern Catalan province of Tarragona, near the Port Aventura amusement park. Aragonès’ government, with the support of the Partit Socialista de Catalunya (PSC), supported this project alleging that it would bring major economic activity to the region, and the numbers speak for themselves; 2.000 jobs, an investment of €700 million and potential to triplicate, 7.600 square metres dedicated to gambling, and a million square metres of water per year worth of water consumption. 

The controversy revolves around two main points; Water shortage and the nature of these earnings. The former is easy enough to understand; Spain is naturally water deficient and Catalan reservoirs are currently under 16% of their capacity. While Tarragona is not the most affected by the drought, hosting this project poses a significant risk to the local population. As for the latter, the issue goes back a long time. Historically, Tarragona has struggled to compete against the other two coastal provinces of Catalonia. Investments, non-risk industries, and good-quality tourism went to the northern provinces of Barcelona and Girona, while Tarragona was left with the petrochemical industry as well as low-quality tourism that promotes businesses such as prostitution or gambling, not to mention the state in which Tarragonese beaches are left after the high season. 

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With this scenario, Jessica Albiach (Comuns) stated that her party would not support expropriating land from the Tarragonese farmers, the main providers of citric and rice, and the alternative economy to the tourism sector. Without her support, Aragonès fell two seats short of passing the budget project for 2024.

Which brings us to our second point, Carles Puigdemont. If you are new to The Karlovian, Carles Puigdemont is the ex-president of Catalunya who in 2017 organised a referendum to determine whether the territory should be independent of the central government. This was deemed unconstitutional and thus he was accused of sedition and embezzlement of funds, leading him to a self-imposed exile. He is now an MEP in Brussels. This summer, Pedro Sánchez was looking for support in the lower chamber to become Prime Minister and Junts, Puigdemont’s party and the owners of the few seats that Sánchez was missing for his investiture, said that they would support him if he elaborated an amnesty law that would pardon their leader in exile. After one failed attempt to pass this law in January, it seems that Junts, Esquerra, and PSOE (Sanchez’s party) have reached an agreement on the text that is yet to be made public. The only detail that we currently know is that it has been mildly approved by the Venice Commission.

The Venice Commission is a consultative organ of the Council of Europe formed by experts in the field of constitutional law. The Commission met in its Venice headquarters on March 15th and 16th and their conclusions were the following; 

• An amnesty is an impersonal measure applying to all persons or a class of persons, and thus cannot be designed to fit one specific individual. Given this; 

• They recommended narrowing down the scope of time of the application of the amnesty to make the effects of the law more foreseeable; the recent extension of the temporal scope of application by two months without any justification raises concerns as regards the general nature of the amnesty.

• Ensuring that a closer causal link is established between “the consultations held in Catalonia on 9 November 2014 and 1 October 2017, their preparation or their consequences” and the acts of embezzlement and corruption since a closer causal link should be the guiding principle for the interpretation and application of the amnesty.

• And, in the interpretation of the exclusions, the guiding principle will be that amnesties are only compatible with international standards if serious human rights violations are excluded from their scope of application. 

They also noted that they observed no breach in the division of powers and that the committees of inquiry into this or any matter set up by the Congress of Deputies of Spain should not be given the mandate to summon, nor even to invite judges to report to them, in particular on the merits of the cases which they have decided. It is not enough that judges will not be obliged to appear before parliament.

With this resolution, the amnesty bill still has to undergo the approval of the senate, in which the PP, Sánchez’s main opposition party, has a majority. Not only that, but the Supreme Court has to analyse whether the amnesty is applicable in the case of the embezzlement of funds for Mr. Puigdemont, and terrorism in the case of the Tsunami Democràtic (a protest group that paralysed the Barcelona airport in 2019). If it passes, however, Puigdemont could be free to return to Catalunya and run for the 12th of May elections.

You thought that was all? Wait, there’s more. Allow me to introduce you to Case Koldo; A case of corruption like the Spaniards hadn’t witnessed since 2009, with the Gürtel case. It all started in 2018, when in an official visit of the then Minister of Transportation José Luis Ábalos and his advisor Koldo García, the first contact between the latter and Víctor Aldama was established. Aldama was cited as honorary consul during the visit, but he hasn’t entered the diplomatic body. In 2019, Aldama was hired by Air Europa and asked to act as intermediary with the Venezuelan government to manage a debt of 175 million euros. While irrelevant at the time, it is key to understand to what extent the Ministry of Transportation was involved.

Fast forward to the algid point of the pandemic (2020), Soluciones de Gestión SL, now deemed a dummy corporation, reaches an agreement with the Ministry on the preparation and delivery of material that hasn’t been asked for yet and of which there is  no public notice. Following this, the Ministry decrees that masks and sanitary materials will only enter through State Ports and Adif, both public corporations, and they award the acquisition contracts to Soluciones de Gestión. Months later, the Canary Islands Government starts awarding contracts to Soluciones, investing 12,2 million euros in deficitary material despite the masks in the first delivery having a “non-medical” label on them. Similar things happened with the Balearic Government when another executive of Soluciones, Íñigo Rotaeche, sent an email to the head of budget of the Public Health Department saying that they will send 1,4 million masks in a plane that had a layover in Palma despite not being a public contract of this acquisition. The Balearic Government paid Soluciones 3,7 million euros without knowing the quality or the type of masks, which they then charged to the European funds without declaring any irregularities or flaws on the delivery or the material.

Circling back to Air Europa, the 10th of June Ábalos, Aldama and García have lunch together. It is believed that at that point they were negotiating the financial rescue of the airline. In July, the Support Fund for the Solvency of Strategic Companies (FASEE) is created by the Ministry of transportation, and in November Air Europa is declared the first company to benefit from it in spite of applying later than others.

By the end of 2021, however, Sánchez has removed all involved from high positions; Ábalos is replaced by Raquel Sánchez (Sánchez is a common surname, she is not related to the Prime Minister), and Koldo García is removed from Renfe (national train service) and as advisor to Puertos del Estado. In 2022, alarms ring when Koldo García and his partner make numerous purchases of real estate not in line with their salaries. Then the actors of the case start to get nervous. The Governments of Balearic and Canary Islands make claims to Soluciones, García tries to get information about the investigation to warn Ábalos, and the current Minister of Transportation, Oscar Puentes, removes the President of Puertos del Estado for lying about its connection with the case.