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Photographer: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg Photographer: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg

Talks between acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and a Catalan separatist faction he needs to form a governing coalition were put on hold after Europe’s top court affirmed that the party’s leader was immune from prosecution and should be freed from jail.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that Esquerra Republicana’s leader Oriol Junqueras, who was jailed for his part in an attempt to declare Catalan independence, had legal immunity as a member of the European Parliament. His pending release risks creating tensions in Catalonia that could undermine his party’s ability to cooperate with Sanchez’s Socialists.

The Socialists are the biggest group in Congress and have announced a coalition agreement with Podemos. Still, the partners need more support to ensure a majority in the 350-member chamber, including that of Esquerra. Junqueras’s release will upend the balance of political power in Catalonia and will delay, if not derail, efforts to end the gridlock in Madrid.

“It’s not expected that Esquerra Republicana will sit down again with the Socialists until we know what they think about this ruling,” Marta Vilalta, spokeswoman for ERC, said in televised comments, adding they wanted assurances that the clampdown on the Catalan pro-independence movement was over. “We ask the Spanish state to respect and adhere to this ruling.”

The government said its lawyers were examining the ruling and would give an opinion in the coming days. The Supreme Court, which will decide how to enact the decision, said earlier on Thursday it would study the result and give prosecutors, the state attorney and lawyers for the defense five days to comment before issuing its own response.

Legal Immunity

Following the ruling, Esquerra hailed the court’s decision on Twitter and said that Junqueras should be immediately released from jail.

The decision also has implications for Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president who led the illegal bid to break away from Spain in 2017. Puigdemont, who is in exile in Belgium and faces arrest if he returns to Spain, was also elected as an MEP.

In a separate development, Catalonia’s supreme court barred regional President Joaquim Torra from office for 18 months after he disobeyed orders to remove yellow ribbons, a symbol of the pro-independence movement, from government buildings. Following the announcement of the decision, Torra said he plans to appeal the ruling.

Esquerra officials have repeatably claimed that it’s difficult for them to consider supporting a Sanchez government while Junqueras is serving a 13-year prison sentence. Junqueras was elected to the European Parliament in May. If he were freed, that would enable him to personally take part in the negotiations with the Socialist party.

Political Impact

If the Spanish court wants to contest Junqueras’s immunity, it must take that up with the European Parliament, the EU judges said in the ruling.

Esquerra, a left-leaning party, was crucial in the no-confidence vote that removed Mariano Rajoy of the conservative People’s Party as prime minister and installed Sanchez in 2018. However, earlier this year, Sanchez called snap elections when ERC voted against his budget proposal.

The elections were held in April but after failing to form a government, Sanchez called a second ballot which was held last month. Another inconclusive result in that vote caused him to reach out to Junqueras’s ERC for support.

“The legal intricacies are very complicated but the political impact is very clear,” said Antonio Barroso, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence in London. “The only thing that matters is whether this hardens the stance of ERC in the negotiations.”

#ECJ: a person elected to the #EP acquires the status of MEP at the time of the official declaration of the results and enjoys, form that time, the immunities attached to that status + EMBEDED PRESS RELEASE #Junqueras @junqueras

https://t.co/BXuldkaxWx pic.twitter.com/8cwK3yQP44 — EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) December 19, 2019

— With assistance by Laura Millan Lombrana