“Yes, I am a strong defender of amnesty”, reaffirmed the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero last night, during the inauguration of the political convention that the PSOE is celebrating this weekend in A Coruña.
After the last and repeated admonitions of the also ex-socialist president Felipe González against the amnesty law for those charged with the process that is already being processed in Congress, Zapatero once again sided with “the firmness, courage and determination” of Pedro Sánchez for promote this controversial initiative, a gesture that provoked a standing ovation from the more than 1,200 attendees at the first day of the important PSOE conclave.
Faced with the apocalyptic panorama drawn by the right, Zapatero insisted that “this is the best time in the history of Spain”. It is so, according to the former president of the Spanish Government, because there is no longer “political violence”, after the end of ETA terrorism; because the Executive of Sánchez is “clean and decent”, without the stain of corruption that ended up evicting the PP from Moncloa, and because in Spain there is more employment than ever, while companies have record profits. “Never before have there been so many individual rights and freedoms”, he insisted. And he added that, in addition, the incomes of the most disadvantaged improve, while inequalities are reduced. And finally, he concluded that the current central government “has not declared independence in any territory of the country”.
Zapatero wanted to dismantle the mantra of the right that “Spain is breaking”. “It was about to break in 2017”, he replied, because of the unilateral declaration of independence that was approved during the mandate of Mariano Rajoy. The former president instead defended the policy of reuniting Sánchez in Catalonia, favoring “dialogue, reconciliation and coexistence”.
And after defending the amnesty, he rejected that the measure of grace is “blackmail” from independence in the PSOE. This party, the former president stressed, “has been the backbone of the Constitution since 1978 in Spain”. The plenary of the Congress Palace in A Coruña applauded the most.
Zapatero also defended the delegation of powers on immigration to Catalonia agreed between the PSOE and Junts, despite the new right-wing offensive, according to the way allowed by the Constitution. The former president advocated taking advantage of this debate, in addition, to seal a State pact on immigration, “so that it is not an element of combat”. Although he criticized that the PP considers all these initiatives unconstitutional: “They end up declaring the Constitution unconstitutional”, he quipped.
Zapatero also directly pointed out the leader of the PSC, present at the convention alongside a large delegation of Catalan socialists, with Jordi Hereu and Miquel Iceta among them. “How I’m looking forward to the elections in Catalonia!”, he encouraged.
