The day after the approval of the opinion of the Amnesty law in the Justice Commission, to which the plenary session of Congress plans to give the green light next week, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, has outlined this Friday more details of the criminal forgetfulness rule in different media. Among other issues, it has been revealed that, according to the Government’s “preliminary calculations”, the law will directly benefit 372 people who have pending criminal cases related to the process, of which 90 would be police officers, and to whom people affected by accounting or accounting reasons should be added. administrative matters for which no figures have been given.
In an interview on TV3’s Els Matins, Bolaños has avoided commenting on when former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont could return to Spain, claiming that he cannot comment on specific cases and ensuring that “this law is not made for anyone” specifically. Likewise, he has reiterated that there is an “unequivocal will” for all people involved in the process to be covered.
The minister has emphasized that, beyond the people who may be amnestied, “the absolute beneficiary of this law will be Catalan society and also Spanish society.”
“It is a law that is directed at around 400 people, according to the numbers we have in the Government there are 372 people who have pending criminal cases, but it is a law that is not only directed at them. They may be the direct beneficiaries, “But, above all, the absolute beneficiary of this law will be Catalan society and also Spanish society. And that is the purpose and goodness of this amnesty law, which of course, over time can be valued with greater precision.” , he highlighted.
Later, in an interview in La Sexta, the minister clarified that these figures correspond to “preliminary data” and that of these 372 people, 90 would be police officers. He has also recognized that there could be other people affected by administrative or accounting causes, such as, for example, those affected in the Court of Accounts by the external action of the Generalitat and the internationalization of the process, who would be thirty.
Bolaños has emphasized the PSOE’s willingness to work “for definitive reconciliation” and has stressed the need for the amnesty law to “completely cover all the people involved”, with the aim of recovering “those affections, affections and complicities that broke so deeply in 2017”.
When the processing of the rule began, it was already estimated that the criminal oversight would affect 309 people with criminal cases, 73 police officers and thirty people prosecuted by the Court of Accounts. In any case, in December, the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, asked the Prosecutor’s Offices of the Supreme Court, the National Court and that of Catalonia – courts in which cases related to the process have been investigated – for “detailed” information. on those procedures that may be affected by the grace measure. As of today, these data are still not known.
The minister has highlighted that the text of the amnesty law “has at all times been very solid and robust”, but has pointed out that, within the framework of the negotiation of the text with Junts, the report of the Venice Commission was “fundamental “.
“Thanks to the Venice Commission report we have been able to incorporate recommendations from Europe. Therefore, it is a deeply constitutional law, but also deeply European, anchored in the best European values ??and standards,” he insisted.
In another vein, the Government hopes to approve the next General State Budgets for 2024 “as soon as possible”, with the support of Junts and ERC, and remembers that the legislature has been in progress for more than 100 days.
After the approval of the opinion of the amnesty law that could come into force in mid-May, after passing through the Senate and again through Congress, the Government is working with parliamentary partners to approve the 2024 accounts, which ERC and Together they must support and according to the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, they have a “will” to agree.
When asked about this on TV3, Bolaños stated that “they have already started” and although in recent days the pro-independence parties have disconnected these negotiations from those of the amnesty law, Bolaños has assured that both parties have conveyed their will to the Executive. of pact.
“We could say that (the negotiations) have already begun. It is true that there is no agreement, but it is true that there is the will of the parliamentary groups, specifically ERC and Junts. They have told us this, and also of the rest of the groups. parliamentarians allied with the Government,” he indicated.
In the same sense, the Government spokesperson and Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, stressed in the press conference after the meeting of the Council of Ministers that “they will continue speaking and dialoguing with the rest of the political forces to be able to approve budgets as as soon as possible”.
“I want to remember something important, that this Legislature has already started more than 100 days ago and during all this time very important steps have been taken (…) It has started with a clear project, with more rights, more jobs and a clear will to improve coexistence,” he pointed out.
