2024 Spanish Amnesty Law

The 2024 Spanish Amnesty Law (officially, the Organic Law 1/2024, of 10 June, of amnesty for the institutional, political, and social normalization in Catalonia) is an organic law of Spain that was approved on 30 May 2024 and entered into force on 11 June, the same day of its publication in the Official State Gazette. It was registered as a bill in the Congress of Deputies on 13 November 2023 by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) with support from Sumar, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, Junts, EH Bildu, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). The initiative derived from investiture agreements between the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, and between PSOE and Together for Catalunya (Junts), formalized on 2 and 9 November 2023, respectively.

The law grants amnesty for legal proceedings and convictions connected to events arising from the Catalan independence process (procés), including the consultation of 9 November 2014, the independence referendum of 1 October 2017—declared unlawful by Spain's Constitutional Court—and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence.

Upon presentation of the bill to the media, acting Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños described it as "deeply constitutional", intended to "guarantee political coexistence" and "heal wounds", and stated that it had the backing of 178 deputies—those from the parliamentary groups committed to supporting Pedro Sánchez's investiture, except Coalición Canaria. The People's Party (PP) and Vox stated their opposition, arguing that the measure contravened the Constitution, the rule of law, and the separation of powers. On 12 November 2023, the PP organized demonstrations in Spain's fifty provincial capitals and in Ceuta and Melilla, reported to have drawn hundreds of thousands of participants. Vox also promoted repeated rallies outside the PSOE headquarters on Calle Ferraz in Madrid; press accounts noted the presence of Francoist symbols and slogans, and police intervened on multiple occasions, including the night of 12 November.

The amnesty law was key in securing the support of Together for Catalonia's 7 MPs to Pedro Sánchez's investiture to a third term as prime minister of Spain following the 2023 Spanish general election and the ensuing government formation negotiations. The law proposal sparked numerous protests across the streets.

According to some estimates, the amnesty will affect some 350 people involved in legal proceedings related to the Catalan independence process, as well as 73 police officers prosecuted for their actions during the illegal 2017 Catalan independence referendum, or in the days before or after.

On 26 June 2025, the Constitutional Court of Spain dismissed the appeal filed by the opposition People's Party (PP) and declared the law fully constitutional by six votes to four.