After the bizarre registration on Tuesday of the amendments to the articles of the Amnesty law, at the limit of the deadline and without Esquerra Republicana and Junts per Catalunya being able to even communicate – to the absolute despair of the PSOE –, the key norm for the start of the legislature arrives this morning at the Congressional presentation, its next procedure, without consensus to modify even a comma of the original text. And with a new report from Congressional lawyers, this time from the Justice Commission itself, which, unlike the previous ones, does call into question the constitutionality of the bill.
Alarmed by the tireless struggle that ERC and Junts are settling in the sovereign space, after the new heart attack suffered the day before, the Government and the leadership of the PSOE mobilized yesterday to try to resolve this intricate mess, which puts at risk the acceptance none of the amendments registered the day before – the joint ones of the socialists and those that Esquerra and JxCat presented alone, each one for their part – if there is no agreement between all the groups that accepted the initiative for processing by an absolute majority.
Thus, the secretary of organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, held a meeting yesterday with the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, already agreed upon last week, and which was also attended by the group’s spokesperson in Madrid, Miriam Nogueras, in offices congressional. At the same time, the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, held a videoconference with the president of Esquerra in Parliament, Josep Maria Jové, according to ACN. For now, without known progress in the negotiations of the socialists with both partners in this legislature, indispensable, but which repel each other like water and oil.
However, there is also disagreement between the socialists and the independence movement in relation to two initiatives by ERC and Junts that aim to protect the application of criminal oblivion for those accused of terrorism in the Democratic Tsunami cases – concerns Carles Puigdemont and Marta Rovira , especially – and in the CDR process in the National Court, pending trial.
Ministers Félix Bolaños and Óscar Puente forcefully defended yesterday only the amendments agreed to by the PSOE. “Serious crimes must be exempt from the amnesty, as they already are in the bill,” Bolaños reiterated, in reference to terrorism, in response to the amendments presented by Junts and ERC alone. “The agreed amendments, which are all technical, reinforce a bill that is already solid, impeccable and absolutely in accordance with the Constitution, and those are the ones supported by the PSOE and that is why it has signed them in a five-year agreement. political parties,” defended Bolaños, who in any case showed his willingness to continue negotiating.
And Puente confirmed that the PSOE will only assume the amendments that were agreed upon with the other groups. “The amendments that we are willing to accept are those that we have signed and, in short, we understand that there is no reason to be in danger,” he stressed.
The firm decision of the PSOE not to retouch the text related to terrorism is what makes ERC go so far as to affirm that the lack of understanding is more with the socialists than with Junts. Among the Catalan independence groups, the Republican party was the first to agree on Sánchez’s investiture. He agreed to a text on the inclusion of terrorism cases that they were satisfied with. A call between Pere Aragonès and Pedro Sánchez helped overcome the obstacle.
But the subsequent investiture pact between the PSOE and JxCat forced those of Oriol Junqueras to once again put the magnifying glass on the text of the amnesty and, specifically, on the cases of terrorism, as was evident on the same afternoon of the Cerdán pact. with Puigdemont. “We reserve the option to introduce amendments” has been the phrase most repeated by Republicans since then.
For their part, Turull and Nogueras also debated the amendments to the amnesty with Cerdán, during their meeting yesterday in Madrid. Regarding Bolaños and Puente warning that the PSOE will only support the allegations they presented, in JxCat they point out that they are playing the role of “bad cop.” “They will move,” they challenge. Regarding the fact that Junts registered its amendments alone, the group assures that this gives them more strength to negotiate directly with the PSOE.
Those from Puigdemont admit that at the moment they have not sat down, nor do they plan to do so, with ERC. Although they concede that at some point they will have to do so in order to negotiate the amendments. “We have a lot of work to do, and we want to do it well,” Turull simply said after his meeting with Cerdán.
The meeting this morning of the speakers of the norm in Congress will have to decide which amendments pass the filter. Although it is a first step, since the groups can continue negotiating and transacting amendments throughout the process, and they can even arrive alive at the debate in the plenary session of Congress.
The intention 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, although there may continue to be additions during the processing. Next week, the report of the presentation will reach the Justice Commission, 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 Congress for final ratification. A path that will be tortuous and that, without a doubt, will be riddled with mines.
