After the shocking registration on Tuesday of the amendments to the articles of the amnesty law, at the limit of the deadline and without the Republican Left and Junts per Catalunya being able to even communicate -to the absolute despair of the PSOE-, the key rule to give the go-ahead to the legislature arrives this morning in the presentation of the Congress, its next procedure, without consensus to modify even a comma of the original text. And with a new report from the lawyers of Congress, this time from the same Justice commission, which, contrary to the previous ones, does call into question the constitutionality of the proposed law.
Alarmed by the tireless struggle that ERC and Junts maintain in the sovereign space, after the new day of heart attack suffered the day before, the Spanish Government and the leadership of the PSOE mobilized yesterday to try to resolve this intricate affair, which puts at risk that none of the registered amendments will be accepted – the joint ones of the socialists and those that Esquerra and JxCat presented alone, each for their part – if there is no agreement from all the groups that admitted to the procedure the initiative by an absolute majority.
So, the secretary of organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, held a meeting yesterday with the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, already agreed last week, and which was also attended by the spokeswoman of the group in Madrid, Miriam Nogueras, in congressional buildings. At the same time, the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, held a video conference with the president of Esquerra in Parliament, Josep Maria Jové, as revealed by the ACN. For now, no known progress in the negotiations of the socialists with the two partners in this legislature, indispensable but which repel each other like water and oil.
However, there is also disagreement between the socialists and independence in relation to the ERC and Junts initiatives that aim to shield the application of the criminal amnesty for those accused of terrorism in the causes of the Democratic Tsunami – they affect Carles Puigdemont and Marta Rovira, especially – and in the CDR process at the National Court, pending trial.
Ministers Félix Bolaños and Óscar Puente strongly defended yesterday only the amendments agreed by the PSOE. “Serious crimes must be exempted from the amnesty, as already stated in the proposed law”, reiterated Bolaños, with reference to terrorism, before the amendments presented by Junts and ERC alone. “The agreed amendments, which are all technical, reinforce a law proposal that is already solid, impeccable and absolutely in accordance with the Constitution, and these are the ones that have the support of the PSOE, which is why it has signed them in an agreement of five political parties”, defended Bolaños, who in any case showed his willingness to continue negotiating.
And Puente corroborated that the PSOE will only accept the amendments agreed upon with the other groups. “The amendments that we are willing to accept are the ones that we have subscribed to and, in the end, we understand that there is no reason to be in danger”, he stressed.
The firm decision of the PSOE not to retouch the text relating to terrorism is what makes the ERC come to affirm that the lack of understanding is more with the socialists than with Junts. Among the Catalan pro-independence parties, the republican party was the first to agree on Sánchez’s investiture. He agreed on a text on the inclusion of terrorism cases that satisfied them. A call between Pere Aragonès and Pedro Sánchez helped save the reef.
But the subsequent investiture pact between the PSOE and JxCat forced those of Oriol Junqueras to put the magnifying glass back on the text of the amnesty and, specifically, on the cases of terrorism, as was evident that afternoon of Cerdán’s pact with Puigdemont. “We reserve the option of introducing amendments”, has been the most repeated phrase by Republicans since then.
For their part, Turull and Nogueras also discussed the amendments to the amnesty with Cerdán, during their meeting yesterday in Madrid. Regarding the fact that Bolaños and Puentes warned that the PSOE will only support the allegations it had presented, JxCat points out that they are playing the role of “bad cop”. “They will move”, they challenge. Regarding the fact that Junts registered its amendments alone, from the formation they say that this gives them more power to negotiate directly with the PSOE.
The Puigdemonts admit that at the moment they have not sat down, nor do they plan to, with ERC. Although they admit that at some point they will have to talk to them to be able to transact the amendments. “We have a lot of work to do, and we want to do it well”, was all Turull said after his meeting with Cerdán.
The meeting this morning of the speakers of the rule in Congress will have to decide which amendments pass the filter. But this is a first step, since the groups can continue to negotiate and trade amendments throughout the process, and they can even make it to the plenary debate of Congress.
The claim of the socialists is that the report of the presentation already includes at least the nine amendments that they registered with Sumar, ERC, Bildu and the BNG, despite the fact that there may continue to be additions during the processing. Next week, the report of the report will reach the Justice Committee, with the expectation that the following week the debate and vote on the amnesty can be held in plenary. Once this procedure has been passed, the rule will go to the Senate, where the absolute majority of the PP wants to delay the processing for two months, instead of the usual 20 days, before it returns to the Congress of Deputies for its final ratification. A path that will be tortuous and that will undoubtedly be filled with mines.
