A majority of Spaniards believe Carles Puigdemont should not receive an amnesty and should not return to the country, according to a GAD3 barometer published by ABC. The newspaper's headline put the share at 60 percent, with the survey carried out for the outlet.
The poll appeared after the Constitutional Court struck the embezzlement offence from the 'procés' case, a decision that, as ABC recounts, means the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia — an independence leader who fled Spanish justice and drove an illegal referendum — has been able to come back to Spain since last Tuesday.
The ruling was approved by the court's progressive majority under its president, Cándido Conde-Pumpido. Conservative members of the body objected, arguing that the court had gone beyond its constitutional powers and once again encroached on the role of the Supreme Court.
ABC frames the outcome as a gap between the bench and the public: in its account, the majority assembled inside the Constitutional Court to permit the fugitive politician's return does not mirror Spanish society, whose views the GAD3 survey is said to capture.
