The Fiscal Council does not have the power to issue any report on the Amnesty law, as the Senate had requested, since this task “is not legally provided for” in cases of “law proposals being processed before Parliament.”
In this way, the Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, responded to the president of the Upper House, the popular Pedro Rollán, when he conveyed to him the agreement of the Table that demanded a report from the Fiscal Council on the text that is being processed .
The communication from the attorney general explains the “different treatment that bills and law proposals deserve in relation to the advisory functions of the Fiscal Council and the Council of the Judiciary.” In the case of propositions, these reports are not mandatory.
Furthermore, García Ortiz recalls that the Fiscal Council is only authorized to report on bills or regulations “that affect the structure, organization and functions of the Public Ministry”, which is why he regrets communicating “the unfeasibility of the request made” since It would mean “invading spaces and powers of the organizational structure of the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office in its decision-making.”
Knowing the position of the Attorney General’s Office, the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, has urged García Ortiz not to “block” or prevent reports on the Amnesty law when “a majority of judges proclaim that it is unconstitutional.”
In statements in the Senate after attending the final approval of the reform of the Constitution that will eliminate the term “disabled” from article 49 on disability, Gamarra has advanced that the popular party will request appearances of experts and jurists in the Upper House, where the PP has a majority. absolute.
During the processing of the Amnesty bill, which is expected to go to the Senate at the beginning of February, the PP parliamentary group plans to request appearances from associations, jurists or constitutional experts, after this same request was rejected in Congress .
The leader of the PP has accused the PSOE of vetoing any attempt at a ruling by the legal bodies and has pointed out that the Senate “can reverse this situation and we will do so” with different appearances.
However, first the law must be accepted by the Board of the Upper House and receive the legal report from the new senior lawyer. It will be the Senate Board that will designate which parliamentary commission will process the rule, whether it will be the Justice commission, as Congress has done, or the Constitutional commission.
In addition, it must set the deadline for registering vetoes and partial amendments, which could last up to a maximum of two months.
The PP’s intention is that before the end of that period, the approved appearances will be held in committee and that the vetoes and amendments will subsequently be debated and voted on in the Senate plenary session. I veto that the PP will surely present.
However, the appeal that the PSOE filed in December before the Constitutional Court (TC) against the reform of the Senate regulations that sought to eliminate the emergency procedure set by Congress and therefore delay the approval of the law. In the event that the TC admits the socialist appeal, the amnesty process would be shortened to 20 days.
Sources close to the popular parliamentary group emphasize that they will do everything possible to make it clear that the amnesty does not fit into the Magna Carta and in this sense the report that the Upper House has requested from the Venice Commission, the advisory body of the Council, is also expected. of Europe.
Last December, said commission asked this chamber for a reason for the urgency with which it was urged to study and evaluate the bill.
Some sectors of the PP also remember that the Venice Commission will not rule on the constitutionality of the norm but only on the values ??that it could violate and that the Council of Europe defends, such as those linked to corruption or terrorism.
