Pedro Sánchez’s closest team got to work since August to prepare a text that defended the constitutionality of the amnesty, an inexcusable condition to achieve the support of ERC and Junts in the investiture of the socialist leader. And one of the axes of the document that seeks to support the annulment of criminal, accounting and administrative cases linked to the process has been the comparison with surrounding countries. The collaborators who have been behind the development of the norm have compiled up to 54 amnesties that have been granted in Europe since the Second World War.
The explanatory memorandum of the proposed organic amnesty law “for institutional, political and social normalization in Catalonia” highlights that the amnesty mechanism has been used on numerous occasions both in Spain and in the rest of Europe. The defense of the authors of the law is that this grace measure, which is not legally regulated in Spain, has already been applied, for example in 1977, after the end of the Franco dictatorship. And also in other countries.
Since Sánchez announced his desire to reach an agreement with the pro-independence parties, there have been many voices that have questioned the constitutionality of the amnesty as it is not contemplated in the Constitution, unlike general pardons that are expressly prohibited.
The text presented this week in the Congress of Deputies to process the amnesty law defends that countries such as Portugal, France or Germany have applied this measure. Among the arguments presented, it is detailed that in some European countries the amnesty is constitutional, and in others amnesties have been granted at different times in their recent history despite the fact that it does not expressly appear in their Magna Cartas.
The document that will serve as the basis for processing the future law in Congress gives as examples the constitutional texts of Italy, France and Portugal, which have applied the amnesty on various occasions. The most recent is the law of August 2, 2023, in Portugal, which granted amnesty to all young people between 16 and 30 years of age for the commission of certain crimes, on the occasion of Pope Francis’ visit to this country. It is also detailed that, for example, in Italy amnesty is allowed but requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
The explanatory statement states that there are other constitutional norms of European countries that, although they do not expressly mention the amnesty, such as Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland or Sweden, “this has not prevented their constitutionality from being affirmed.”
“Since the Second World War, more than fifty of these laws have been enacted in the aforementioned countries, considering the doctrine itself that an amnesty is applicable in the constitutional State in circumstances of special political crisis,” the bill states. Thus, the authors of the text defend that from the perspective of European Union law, the institution of amnesty is “perfectly approved.”
The intention in the explanatory statement is to justify that the amnesty is absolutely recognized and used in Europe. Another example from Portugal is the amnesty for crimes derived from the carnation revolution, which gave rise to the democratization of the country. In France, in 1951, collaborators with the Nazi regime under the age of 21 were granted amnesty and sentenced to sentences of less than 15 years. There have also been amnesty laws in France regarding the Algerian War, after the signing of the Évian Accords, which affected both the fighters for independence and the military who fought and even those who later rebelled against the Government. French (1962, 1966, 1968 and 1982).
In Germany, amnesty laws have been passed to benefit participants in student protests (1968 and 1970), in addition to the law granting immunity from prosecution of 1949, the law on waiving penalties and fines and dismissal of criminal proceedings and procedures sanctioning laws in 1954 or impunity laws of 1968 and 1970. Likewise, in Italy it was also approved in matters of public disorder and resistance to authority (1966, 1986 and 1990).
Even in Switzerland, two laws have been enacted, a federal decree in 1955 granting a partial amnesty for violations of the regulations on maximum prices for pigs for slaughter and another that same year, also a partial amnesty, for violations of the regulations on maximum prices. of the hay.
These examples are not only about amnesties for a change of regime, as was the case in 1977 for the transition from the dictatorship to Spanish democracy, but used as mechanisms to resolve political and social conflicts. However, and despite the justification included in the text, critics of the law, including historical socialists, warn that in this case the driving force for amnesty for the process is not to resolve a conflict in Catalonia or for coexistence between Catalans but rather so that Sánchez could, as has been the case, be invested as president of the Government with the support of the pro-independence parties.
