Against all odds, the biggest beneficiaries of the Amnesty law, that is, Carles Puigdemont’s party, have voted against its approval. This blockade of the text promoted by the PSOE has caused an unprecedented scenario. Parliamentary sources explain that when the rule is overturned, it must return to the Justice Commission for debate.
The objective of Junts is to achieve a “ten” law for them, that is, that all of their people benefit from the measure of grace and they are not willing to give in. The main obstacle is the exclusion of terrorism among those granted amnesty. The existence of several judicial processes under the umbrella of this crime that affects Puigdemont has been enough to impose his criteria against the PSOE and even ERC, which chose to validate the law.
Since the amnesty was an organic law, an absolute majority of the chamber, 176 votes, was needed for its approval. The seven votes against Junts were enough to prevent us from moving on to the new procedure, which was to send the agreed text to the Senate.
According to article 131 of the chamber’s regulations, if the majority set by the chamber is not achieved, “the project will be returned to the Commission, which must issue a new opinion within a month.” “The debate on the new opinion will comply with the rules that regulate the totality,” the rule states.
Parliamentary sources explain that now the text with the amendments that had already been approved returns to the Justice Commission. Junts did vote in favor of the opinion which included the modifications agreed upon in recent weeks both in presentation and in Commission. This text remains and no new amendments may be submitted.
These sources clarify that what can be done is to agree on transactional amendments. The lawyers of Congress will decide in the next few hours whether this procedure lasts fifteen days or a month, depending on whether it is considered that the processing is still urgent.
Parliamentary sources insist that the debates do not have to start from the beginning. The text presented by the PSOE on November 13 has undergone several modifications through eight technical amendments and two other transactional ones supported by the pro-independence parties, one on the scope of terrorism as an exception to the law and another on how to apply the amnesty. in precautionary measures.
Junts and ERC managed to make a new modification to withdraw the exception in the amnesty for those causes of terrorism with a “firm sentence” due to suspicions that the judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón accelerated the process against Puigdemont in the Tsunami case Democratic for terrorism.
The two pro-independence parties took advantage of the parliamentary process, specifically in the phase of the Justice Commission, to agree with the PSOE to change the article in which cases of terrorism already convicted were specified as an exception for amnesty.
It was possible to recover in the text as the only exception cases of terrorism only if the right to life and torture are violated. The first text presented by the socialists granted amnesty for cases of terrorism linked to the process as long as there was no final ruling.
Junts had already warned that it was not enough and has taken its threat to the last extreme. The independence party is forcing the text to undergo a last-minute modification, through an amendment that is still alive and that ERC also defends. This is the transactional amendment on 29 proposed by Junts, in which the term “terrorism” is intended to disappear among the exclusions of the amnesty.
The amendment specifies that “acts that have manifestly and with direct intention caused serious violations of human rights (…)” are excluded from the amnesty. However, they seek to modify the current text which states that acts classified as terrorist crimes are excluded from the amnesty as long as they violate articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Despite Junts’ warnings, the PSOE has voted against, which has pushed the independentistas to vote against. Now the text, with its modifications, must return to the Commission, where the possibility of continuing to negotiate new amendments will be opened. According to parliamentary sources, the electoral campaign for the Galician elections, which begin in the coming days, will not be affected by these deadlines.
