After the comings and goings between the plenary session and the Justice commission due to the disagreements between the PSOE and the pro-independence forces, particularly Junts per Catalunya, Congress voted today on the final version of the Amnesty law, which has gone ahead with the votes of the parliamentary majority of the investiture and the rejection of PP and Vox, with 178 votes in favor and 172 against.
Once approved in the Congress of Deputies, the Amnesty law now continues its processing in the Senate, where the absolute majority of the PP will maintain it for two months, the maximum period established by the regulations of the Upper House, reformed ad hoc to delay the procedure as much as possible, before returning it to the Lower House for final approval.
For the opposition, led by the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the amnesty represents “blackmail” by the independence movement to all Spaniards. And for this reason he has criticized the “immodest” absence of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, during the debate: “He does not dare to show his face in the face of this delirium,” criticized the Galician, for whom the head of the Executive “has abided by everything ” before Junts and ERC, on whom, in his opinion, he depends, and “he has granted amnesty for terrorism, corruption, high treason and whatever is necessary.” “This law is going to be approved because it is the only way for Sánchez to continue a little longer in Moncloa,” said Feijóo, for whom the Catalan elections “will mark the beginning of the end of this Government.”
The extreme right has gone further and Santiago Abascal has accused Sánchez of not “having any scruples other than clinging to the blue bank” and of piloting “a co-government of Mohamed VI and Carles Puigdemont”, which is why he has promoted an amnesty which represents, in the opinion of the Vox leader, a “humiliation” for the Spanish and a “misdeed.”
On behalf of the groups that support the coalition government, the spokesperson for the commons, Aina Vidal, representing Sumar, spoke first, praising the opportunity that this law offers to “make a policy that defends dialogue and the agreements to build”, instead of betting on “hatred and confrontation and the ultra defense of a blank Spain that denies plurality”. She has even stopped in her parliament to reproach PP and Vox for using their votes to insist on a “way of doing revenge politics.”
Then it was the turn of the PSOE spokesperson, Patxi López, who altered the order of the arguments of the investiture partners and began by attacking the opposition before defending the amnesty. Thus, his first words were against the PP and its “problems with the conception of democracy, which is only legitimate,” he lamented, “when it benefits its interests.” The Basque deputy has defended the need to “work for reconciliation with brave and determined policies” in the face of the “infinite and constant confrontation” of the popular people through the use of “the patriotic police, the dissolution of political parties and the burning of Catalonia in search for social division and tension”.
Junts per Catalunya has defended that the amnesty goes ahead not because of the “conviction” of the PSOE but thanks to the investiture pact, in which Pedro Sánchez needed the seven votes of Carles Puigdemont’s party to be re-elected president of the Government. “It is a comprehensive amnesty that does not leave any pro-independence supporters out and that adapts to European standards,” has been described by deputy Josep Maria Cervera, in charge of defending the position of his parliamentary group, which rejected it in its first version to seek more guarantees.
ERC, which was represented in the guest gallery by the vice president of the Generalitat, Laura Vilagrà, and the president of the party, Oriol Junqueras. “For four years we have insisted that this law must exist,” said Pilar Vallugera, who has demanded pardons and the reform of the Penal Code as preliminary steps for the amnesty that was approved today, which is the starting point of the “second phase of the political conflict, the exercise of the right of self-determination.”
On behalf of the PNV, its deputy Mikel Legarda has reiterated his support for the vote on the Amnesty law to advance the “unresolved resolution of the territorial question” and the “unfinished anchoring of those territories with strong national feelings of belonging other than those of the rest of the State and with a cultural aspiration but also a political aspiration of self-government with relevant pro-independence sectors”.
EH Bildu has admitted that the Amnesty law is an “exceptional, but also fair” law. And its co-spokesperson, Jon Iñarritu, has taken a long view to predict that it is a legislation that “will go down in history” despite the fact that right now it is being left a little “blurred” by a media focus on “the Koldo case.” , the ayusosphere, the budgets that will not exist or the calling of elections” in Catalonia.
