“Yes, I am a firm defender of amnesty,” former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero reaffirmed this Friday, during the inauguration of the political convention that the PSOE is holding this weekend in A Coruña.
After the latest and repeated admonitions by former socialist president Felipe González against the Amnesty law for those prosecuted for the process that is already being processed in Congress, Zapatero once again supported “the firmness, courage and determination” of Pedro Sánchez to promote this controversial initiative, which caused a loud applause from the more than 1,200 attendees on the first day of this 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.” This is the case, in the opinion of the former President of the Government, because there is no longer “political violence” after the end of ETA’s terrorism; because Sánchez’s Executive is “clean and decent”, without blemish of the corruption that ended up dislodging the PP from Moncloa; and because in Spain there are more jobs than ever, while companies have record profits. “Never have there been so many individual rights and freedoms like now,” he insisted. And he added that, in addition, the incomes of the most disadvantaged are improved, while inequalities are reduced. And finally, he settled that the current Government “has not declared independence in any territory of the country.”
Zapatero wanted to dismantle the right-wing mantra that “Spain is breaking up.” “It was about to break in 2017,” he replied, given the unilateral declaration of independence that was approved during Mariano Rajoy’s mandate. The former president instead defended Sánchez’s reunion policy in Catalonia, favoring “dialogue, reconciliation and coexistence.”
And, after defending the amnesty, he rejected that this measure of grace is “blackmail” from the independence movement to the PSOE. This party, the former president highlighted, “has been the backbone of the Constitution since 1978 in Spain.” The plenary session of the A Coruña congress palace applauded wildly.
Zapatero also defended the delegation of powers over immigration to Catalonia agreed between the PSOE and Junts, despite the new offensive by the right, according to the path allowed by the Constitution. The former president also advocated taking advantage of this debate to seal a State pact on immigration, “so that it is not an element of combat.” Although he reproached the PP for considering all these initiatives unconstitutional: “They are going to end up declaring the Constitution unconstitutional,” he ironically stated.
Zapatero also pointed directly to the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, present at the convention along with a large delegation of Catalan socialists, with Jordi Hereu and Miquel Iceta among them. “I’m so looking forward to the elections in Catalonia!” He encouraged.
