José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has said that he is an optimist out of conviction. In his speech yesterday in Foros de Vanguardia he did not disappoint anyone by saying that “Spain is experiencing the best moment in its history” and being convinced that the amnesty will be approved. His enthusiasm must be taken into account because, despite his status as former president, he is playing a very important role in the negotiations between the PSOE and the Catalan independentists. Someday he will explain it. He just had to pay attention to the effusive greetings that he gave yesterday at the ONCE Foundation to some leaders of Junts or ERC. Today he commands the most absolute confidentiality so that things do not go wrong.
And how are things? Well, better than on Tuesday, when Junts slammed the door on approving the Amnesty bill, but still far from being finalized. What is clear is that Pedro Sánchez has sent his Sherpas to find a consensus formula that involves maintaining the text of the amnesty, as it is at the moment, and that safeguards the claims of Junts. The way can only be through a series of legislative reforms, among which the one proposed by the leader of En Comú Podem Jaume Asens consisting of reforming the crime of terrorism in the Penal Code. In this line of seeking rapprochement with Junts, Sánchez stated yesterday in Brussels that “the Catalan independence movement is not terrorism.” The sentence was very well received in the ranks of Carles Puigdemont’s party.
We will have to be attentive in the coming days to know in detail what these new concessions are that Sánchez’s Executive is willing to facilitate in exchange for not touching a comma of the Amnesty law. Beyond the wear and tear that this will mean for the Government, the reaction of Esquerra should not be underestimated, which continues to adopt a responsible and pragmatic attitude, but which sees as if it wanted to reward Junts’ inflexible strategy more.
Zapatero can continue to be optimistic, but the mess and chaos that has been organized exceeds all forecasts. And yesterday the Galician election campaign began.
