The Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, announced this afternoon at a press conference that Pere Aragonès will attend the Senate this Thursday to defend his position regarding amnesty and self-determination. “We have always said it: the Government of Catalonia will never leave any free space where it can defend the resolution of the political conflict and the consensus of Catalan society on a fundamental issue such as the end of repression or amnesty,” stated Plaja.
For the Government it is important not to leave the debate on the amnesty in the hands of the PP, which has an absolute majority in the Upper House, “when they have been one of the main promoters of political repression” against the independence movement, the spokesperson justified. “No one, neither the Spanish Government nor any state party nor any regional president, will defend the amnesty better than the president of the Generalitat,” she stressed. Aragonès has already given his point of view to the Government of Pedro Sánchez at the dialogue table, whose last meeting was held in July 2022. Now he intends to defend the amnesty and self-determination in the Senate against “the most reactionary right, which only “he puts Catalunya in his mouth to generate tension”.
The ERC Government wants to make it clear that if an amnesty is finally approved in exchange for the investiture, it has been thanks to their work. The presence of the head of the Government in Madrid will take place three days after he officially received the report on the clarity agreement that he commissioned in April from a group of nine experts. The president opted for only one of the five referendum possibilities that have been raised in the document: a consultation in Catalonia in which only Catalans vote, in a vote similar to the consultation held in Scotland in 2014.
All the regional presidents of the PP will attend the Senate session this Thursday to show their rejection of the amnesty and the possible agreements that Pedro Sánchez could seal with the Catalan independence parties, in addition to Bildu. The popular ones govern in twelve of the autonomous communities. It is likely that Aragonès will find a largely hostile atmosphere, taking into account that the regional presidents of the PSOE are not expected to attend. As of today, it remains to be seen if some presidents delegate to another member of their governments, as Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands, plans to do with his vice president Manuel Domínguez. It is worth remembering that the PP has already announced that it will appeal the amnesty law to the Constitutional Court, if approved in Congress.
The Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, refused to participate because he considers that it is a “campaign of partisan interest” of the PP. Plaja has shown all his “respect” for the decision of the Basque leader and has not advanced the content of the head of the Government’s speech.
