Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez (pictured), has an election to win this year. The last thing that he wants is Catalonia’s troublesome independence movement derailing things, particularly when his main rivals, the right-wing Partido Popular (PP), will be taking an even tougher stance on the region. But a ruling on Tuesday by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has handed the independence movement a big advantage.Following Belgium’s refusal to extradite seven politicians involved in the illegal 2017 referendum on Catalan independence, Spanish judge Pablo Llarena asked the ECJ to weigh in. But rather than side with Madrid, the court stated that an extradition order could be refused if a specific group of people is being persecuted. This means that any future extradition request would result in the close scrutiny of how pro-independence politicians and their supporters are being treated under the Spanish legal system.