As seen in the European Parliament in the recent debate on the rule of law in Spain, Renew Europe, the group of European liberals, considers that the amnesty law violates democratic principles and breaks the separation of powers, so Ciudadanos will make it its main battlehorse ahead of next year’s European elections.
With this purpose, Renew Europe and Ciudadanos have organized an event this Friday in Madrid to denounce “the attacks on the rule of law” that they attribute to the Spanish Government and to urge the European Union to guarantee respect for current constitutional legality.
The leader of Renew Europe, Stéphane Séjourné, participated in the conference, titled “A possible Spain. Rule of law and reforms: fundamental pillars to continue building”, through a recorded message from Ukraine; Ciudadanos MEPs Adrián Vázquez, Maite Pagazaurtundua -by videoconference-, Jordi Cañas and Eva Poptcheva, and jurists such as Elisa de la Nuez or Teresa Freixes, as well as figures from the left such as the former socialist minister Jordi Sevilla and Nicolás Redondo Terreros, who He has been expelled from the PSOE for his criticism of the amnesty.
Adrián Vázquez, general secretary of Ciudadanos, opened the event celebrating the upcoming 45th anniversary of the 1978 Constitution, the starting point of the most prosperous democratic period in Spain, as he described it, and announced that in the next elections European elections will not be debated on the left-right axis, but on “freedom or populism, democracy or radicalism and respect for the rule of law or authoritarianism.”
In this sense, the MEP referred to the recent victory of the far-right in the Netherlands and pointed out the “wave of Euroscepticism” sweeping Europe as the main challenge facing the Union. Likewise, he has denounced the “alarming road map” of the Spanish Government, which, in his opinion, “attacks the fundamental principles” of the Constitution and the European treaties, because it breaks “equality before the law, the separation of powers and the non-distinction between territories”.
“The impunity law is a Rubicon and marks a strategy that we have to be able to reverse,” stated, for his part, the brand new spokesperson for Ciudadanos and also an MEP, Jordi Cañas, for whom the amnesty law, to which has been referred to as the “law of impunity”, represents the “most unworthy” thing that a legislator can do, since, in his opinion, “all ethical limits” have been exceeded.
“At a time when the wall policy that the President of the Government talks about is triumphing, I thank you for the invitation, which allows me to express my point of view to people with whom I may disagree on some issues but with whom I agree. fundamentally, about what should not be discussed”, stated, for his part, Nicolás Redondo, for whom the meeting tomorrow Saturday in Switzerland between the PSOE and Junts “embarrasses” the Spaniards. “It will be a sad day in the history of Spain,” indicated the historic Basque socialist. “What crazy mutation has led the PSOE to accept this?” he asked himself.
Elisa de la Nuez, from the Hay Derecho Foundation, has denounced the “illiberal” drift of the Spanish Government, which, in her opinion, seeks to control the “counterbalancing institutions” such as the General Council of the Judiciary or the Court of Accounts, of the same way that, at the time, the PP also tried to do it. “Political parties have abused the rules,” said the jurist, for whom the amnesty is “stretching the seams of the system,” which is why judges, lawyers and officials may feel “threatened.” It’s a “self-induced crisis,” she has concluded.
Germán Teruel, professor of constitutional law at the University of Murcia, has stated that Western democracy is going through a “worrying moment” and that specifically the Spanish democracy “is going without brakes and going crazy” since the motion of censure that led to the presidency. by Pedro Sánchez. “The first guardrail of democracy is that we must respect the political adversary: ??we cannot overcome an institutional crisis by throwing more candy on the fire, and the second is the counterweights of power, which are being dismantled in an obscene way,” the academic analyzed. .
“For nationalists, their ideas are like a substitute religion. This weakens ideological pluralism and freedom of conscience, but they think they are above the rights of others and the laws,” he argued from Brussels, for videoconference, Maite Pagazaurtundua. “A reaction has been activated in defense of clear democracy. Institutions should never again be colonized by governments,” said the Basque MEP, who spoke of “more transparent” governance in European countries as an objective for Spain. .
MEP Eva Poptcheva has urged the European Union to defend the rule of law in Spain and has suggested that the current political situation cannot be considered an internal issue, which is why she has referred to the possibility that European funds They serve so that Brussels can condition the legislative action of the Government and that European justice can act when legality is put at risk.
The jurist Teresa Freixes has indicated that in Europe there are indicators to analyze whether there are isolated breaches of legality by a member country or, on the contrary, it is a drift that can be systemic and lead to more serious problems for it. European Union. But, in her opinion, there are instruments that are not used.
For Jordi Sevilla, liberal democracies are at risk around the world due to the rise of populism, which threatens the rule of law. And in this global context, there are two challenges for all of humanity: the ecological crisis and artificial intelligence. “A few years ago Donald Trump was a joke and today he can be re-elected president of the United States,” analyzed the former socialist minister, for whom it is necessary to urgently create global governance, which forces us to “rearrange alliances” in all levels, “non-partisan” the debate. “The amnesty is a political error, but I have no doubt that it will be constitutional and accepted by Europe,” Sevilla disagreed with the majority of speakers.
“I can only speak from perplexity,” began by stating philosophy professor David Mejía, who has defined federalism as it is proposed in Spain as a “disintegrating discourse.” “We have to end the story that all decentralization is progressive and all recentralization is pro-Franco,” he concluded.