MIAMI.- The proposed amnesty law for Catalan separatists in Spain It has been stuck in the Congress of Deputies, thanks to the demands of the Catalan independence party Junts, which asks for even more concessions.
In this way, the bill, which facilitated the support of the pro-independence Catalan parliamentary groups, Junts and Equerra Republicana, for Pedro Sánchez to maintain the power of the Spanish government, will return to the negotiating table.
Pedro Sánchez quickly left the chamber, along with his team of legislators, after hearing the result of the vote.
Despite the call from Junts, which is led by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont who fled Spain after declaring the independence of Catalonia; After negotiating until the last minute, the faces of the deputies of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) reflected anguish.
With a voting result: 171 votes in favor and 179 against, including the no from the Popular Party and VOX, the bill will have to be modified in favor of Junts so that Sánchez can obtain the approval he expects and needs to continue governing. .
The deadline for issuing a new opinion is a maximum of 30 days, but the Spanish Congress working group will have to decide shortly whether to reduce the deadline to 15 days by classifying it as urgent.
A “comprehensive amnesty is needed, which leaves no one behind,” said the Junts deputy, Miriam Nogueras, in clear reference to Puigdemont, who organized the illegal 2017 referendum and to the current president of the government of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, who He could be involved in the leadership of the subversive group Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), which paralyzed streets, highways and the airport during the days that supported the illegal referendum.
Junts assured that he is willing to overturn the law if necessary because “it leaves out leaders of the call for independence.”
On the other hand, the political group EH Bildu, pro-independence of the Basque Country, defended the law proposal because it considers that it is “necessary so that the conflict in Catalonia can be resolved and removed from the judicial framework, where it never had to go.”
“It will be fair and good not only for Catalan society, but also for the State,” he stated, referring to what could be good for him.
The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, criticized all parliamentary groups. Both those who supported the law due to the “terrible consequences of the “impunity of street terrorism”, and the Popular Party, which is also strongly opposed to the proposed law, but accuses it of helping the Government by “exercising opposition to part time”.
In turn, the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, personalized his rejection of the law in the president of the Government and socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, ensuring that “the turns of the PSOE are comical and cosmic.”
“Junts has portrayed Sánchez and the entire Socialist Party. They have no problem lying. You maintain the office (government) thanks to former president Puigdemont. But when he says “colorín colorado” you will have nothing left. This law is infamous from the minute one, but amendment by amendment is a Russian matryoshka”, (box of surprises), he stated.
Amnesty
Many ask why amnesty today and not a year or more ago.
Any amnesty has to be approved by the Spanish Congress and validated by the Supreme Court of the Spanish nation.
Carles Puigdemont, who was the president of the Catalan Government when he unilaterally declared independence and then fled the country, would be the first beneficiary. He could even opt for that leadership again.
Sánchez, whose government has already granted pardons to several leaders of the Catalan independence movement, says that “it is time to turn the page and move forward. That the amnesty is “positive for Spain” because “it would calm Catalan society.”
“Today in Catalonia there is less interest in independence than when the Catalan government itself tried to convince the population that it was good,” commented the Spanish professor, a jurist by training and profession.
“This amnesty seems immoral to me because it is convenient,” he stressed.
