Poll: 64% of Spaniards Outside Catalonia Reject Procés Amnesty
A YouGov survey for Ara finds most Spaniards see Carles Puigdemont's return as bad news, while 52% of people in Catalonia back the amnesty law.
Most people in Spain think the return of Carles Puigdemont from abroad would be bad news, and outside Catalonia 64% reject the amnesty law that makes it possible, according to a YouGov survey published by the Catalan daily Ara. Inside Catalonia the picture is reversed: 52% support the amnesty.
The poll was published as Spain heads into a general election campaign. Puigdemont, the leader of Junts (the Catalan pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya), has said he will not come back while the campaign lasts.
The survey’s central numbers
- 64% of Spaniards outside Catalonia reject the amnesty for those responsible for the Procés, the name given to the Catalan independence drive. Only 17% are in favor.
- 52% of people in Catalonia support the amnesty, 30% oppose it and 18% have no defined position.
- 19% of voters of the PSOE, the Socialist party that leads the Spanish government, call Puigdemont’s return “good news.” 57% of them think the opposite.
- 95% of Vox voters and 90% of PP voters see his return to Catalonia as bad news.
- 77% of people in Catalonia support the use of all official languages in the Congreso de los Diputados (the lower house of Spain’s parliament). In the rest of Spain, 42% are in favor and 48% against.
Where Puigdemont’s return stands
Ara reports that Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena has lifted the arrest warrant against Puigdemont and closed the investigation. Former Catalan ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig are in the same position. One step is still pending: the Supreme Court has to formally declare that the amnesty applies to all three. That decision is with judge Manuel Marchena and could come during the campaign, the newspaper said.
Puigdemont has said he wants his return to be an institutional one and does not want it mixed up with the election.
How voters of each party answered
Voters of the Broad Front, the list that succeeds the junior partner in the current Spanish government, follow the Socialist pattern: 28% see the return as positive and 45% as negative. On the amnesty itself, supporters outnumber opponents among both PSOE and Broad Front voters, though in neither group do they reach 50%. Among PP and Vox voters, 89% reject the law.
Because the survey was national, it did not include enough voters of Catalan parties to say what they think, Ara noted.
What it means for Catalonia after the election
The numbers show a wide gap between Catalonia and the rest of Spain on two measures that came out of deals between the PSOE and Junts: the amnesty and the use of Catalan in Congress. According to Ara, a future PP and Vox government has already said it would remove the language option from the chamber’s rules.
Junts has said it will not vote to make either Alberto Núñez Feijóo or Pedro Sánchez prime minister. The party leaves the door open to a different Socialist candidate, but only one who would “put Catalonia at the center.”
Ara also notes that two commitments Junts and ERC obtained from the PSOE were not delivered in the term that just ended: official status for Catalan in the European Union and a separate financing arrangement for Catalonia.
How the poll was done
YouGov interviewed 1,221 people aged 18 or older who live in Spain and have the right to vote. The interviews took place online between Oct. 26 and Nov. 2. The sample was designed to represent the electorate by sex, age, region and remembered vote in the 2023 elections. The maximum theoretical margin of error is 2.8 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
Source: Ara
