PORTUGAL
In Portugal, the Constitution itself recognizes the capacity to grant amnesties. Its article 161 establishes that it is the responsibility of the Assembly of the Republic to grant general amnesties and pardons.
Three amnesties have been granted in the last 50 years. The last one, this very year, on the occasion of the celebration of the World Youth Day (WYD), during the visit of Pope Francis this past August.
Two months earlier, in June, the Assembly of the Republic approved a law to amnesty all young people between 16 and 30 years old for the minor offenses and misdemeanors they had committed up to June 19.
To find another amnesty, one must go back to March 1, 1996, when the Assembly granted amnesty to Saraiva de Carvalho, one of the heroes of the "Carnation Revolution," and his followers, for the 18-year prison sentence imposed on them for leading and participating in the terrorist group FP-25 in the early 1980s.
Precisely, the Carnation Revolution and, consequently, the change of regime in Portugal, gave rise to another amnesty, approved in 1979. Then the Law of Political-Military Amnesty, amnestied criminal and disciplinary offenses of a political nature, including those subject to military jurisdiction, committed after the Revolution of April 25, 1974.
FRANCE
The current Constitution of the V Republic establishes that amnesty can only be granted by law. The President of the Republic has the prerogative of individual pardon. From 1959 to 2002, the President of the Republic urged the Assembly to approve an amnesty law, for minor offenses and misdemeanors, once he inaugurated his term, as a measure of grace.
On January 5, 1951, a law granted amnesty to collaborators with the Nazi regime under 21 years of age who had been sentenced to less than 15 years in prison, as well as other cases for minor offenses committed during World War II.
Two years later, on July 24, 1953, the French Assembly approved a new, much broader amnesty law, from which the vast majority of people benefited for crimes committed during World War II.
Those convicted of exposing others to torture, deportation, or death, and also those convicted of collaborating with the enemy army, police, or intelligence services were excluded.
Between 1964 and 1968, the National Assembly approved three amnesty laws in order to restore national unity after the Algerian War. These three laws were completed by a presidential Decree of grace, so that of the 3,662 people who benefited in total, 1,196 did so through individual pardon by the President of the Republic. (Charles de Gaulle).
An amnesty law was also approved for the crimes committed during the May 1968 riots.
In 1982, the National Assembly approved the last amnesty law to benefit the last convicted for the Algerian War on the initiative of the President of the Republic, François Mitterrand.
The French Assembly approved on January 10, 1990, a new amnesty, this one for offenses committed before August 1988, of a political, social, or economic nature, related to the revolts led by the separatists of the Socialist Front for Kanak National Liberation of New Caledonia. Blood crimes were excluded.
The last amnesty registered was approved on August 6, 2002 for crimes with sentences of less than 10 years in prison related to union, industrial, commercial conflicts…
ITALY
In Italy the Constitution establishes that amnesty can only be granted by a law that must be approved by two-thirds majority of each of the two Chambers that make up the Italian Parliament, in a vote, article by article, and with a final vote of the entire text, also by two-thirds of each Chamber.
Upon concluding World War II, Italy approved an amnesty for political, military, and common crimes stemming from the conflict. This first amnesty, approved on June 22, 1946, was carried out by Presidential Decree.
Three years later, on August 26, 1949, an amnesty was approved that benefited those convicted of electoral offenses, which would be extended on December 19, 1953 for the same offenses.
On June 4, 1966, an amnesty was approved for minor offenses with a sentence of less than three years in prison.
To all this, we must add the high number of tax amnesties enacted in recent years.
GERMANY
The German Constitution (Bonn Basic Law of 1949) does not refer to amnesty in any article.
In fact, in 1949 and 1954 the Bundestag approved two laws that were not called 'amnesty' laws, but rather impunity laws, but which acted as such for all those who, without being war criminals, had committed crimes during Nazism.
Two other amnesty laws were passed in 1968 and 1970 to complete the two reforms made to the Penal Code in those years.
The reforms of the Penal Code aimed to adapt new doctrinal trends in criminal policy to the criminal system, especially regarding the duration of custodial sentences.
Crimes were also decriminalized, such as homosexuality, and amnesties had the objective of pardoning the sentences of those who had been condemned for crimes that no longer were. Finally, in September 2009, a rehabilitation law was enacted that “amnestyed” those whom the Nazis had condemned as traitors.