Catalan separatists reject Spanish amnesty Bill

Demonstrators hold up a banner reading ‘No to Amnesty’ as people wave Spanish and Navarre flags during a protest against the potential amnesty law, in Pamplona, northern Spain (Alvaro Barrientos/AP)

Catalan separatist politicians dealt Spain’s government a blow on Tuesday by voting against a hugely divisive amnesty law that was aimed at helping hundreds of their supporters who were involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 independence bid.

The most radical separatists, who want to ensure that their leader Carles Puigdemont, a fugitive in Belgium, can return home, said the proposed law did not go far enough to protect him.