Not only fundamental rights are under pressure. The separation of powers is problematic, and another worrisome problem is the lack of independence of the judiciary in Spain.

The lack of independence in the Spanish judiciary has also been denounced from within, by former High Court magistrate José Antonio Martín Pallín, constitutional law scholars such as Joaquín Urias and more precisely by a judge responsible for investigating corruption, Mercedes Alaya. Meanwhile, the Spanish government has continued to enact legislation in complete disregard of both the GRECO and the Venice Commission’s recommendations, in a way that further entrenches rather than corrects the problems identified. The lack of judicial independence is also highlighted in the Commission’s own 2017 Justice Scoreboard (COM(2017) 167 final) and the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum.

There is an increasing criminalisation of dissident opinions in Spain.  The 2024 Amnesty International report on the right to protest details that Spain uses anti-terrorism laws and national security to target and silence non-violent activists. Since the 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia, the Spanish authorities have increasingly resorted to the criminal code and the judiciary to silence and quash the pro-independence movement. The repression has taken the form of fines, bans from office, prosecution and imprisonment of political representatives and civil society leaders, and prosecution of thousands of activists, representatives and high officials.

The feud against Catalonia’s pro-independence movement shows the Spanish judiciary’s bias and politization, which is so evident that even Judge Aguirre bragged about obstructing the amnesty law in an audio that was leaked by Spanish media Diario Red.

That amnesty law passed in May was supposed to be aimed at annulling prosecutions of Catalan pro-independence activists, yet its implementation has taken place in a very selective an unequal manner. To date, 109 amnesties were granted, most of them —a total of 51— to police officers, who were accused of violence and degrading treatment against peaceful voters, while it has been denied to many pro-independence activists, public servants and politicians.