A week, in politics, usually means a world. But, in this turbulent legislature, just 24 hours can change everything. Above all, in the face of the missiles fired almost daily by judicial authorities to try to blow up the Amnesty law, which is being voted on this afternoon in the Congress of Deputies.
Given decisions by Judge Manuel García-Castellón that always occur just after the political and parliamentary negotiation advances in the delimitation of the amnesty, or the reactivation yesterday by Judge Joaquín Aguirre of the case due to the alleged contacts of the environment of Carles Puigdemont with Russian emissaries before 1-O, the PSOE leadership is already denouncing judicial interference in the actions of the legislative power.
“Judicial decisions have a very clear objective,” say socialist sources. “The mere fact that the judiciary acts at the mercy of the legislature to try to influence the law is already horrible and inadmissible. The times of the judiciary are empirically aligned with those of politics and the legislature. Be it one way or another, every time the legislature makes a move, a judge makes a move,” they warn in Ferraz.
The new spokesperson for the PSOE, Esther Peña, nevertheless insisted yesterday on publicly showing “respect” for judicial decisions, “whether we like them more or less.” Although, 24 hours before the amnesty vote in Congress, she did not rule out that these new judicial decisions could force more changes to be introduced in the norm, via amendments, as claimed by ERC and Junts.
“Right now there is no change on the table in the position of the PSOE regarding the voting on the amendments with respect to what came out of the Justice commission last week,” said Peña. “At this point, we are satisfied and comfortable with the text that came out of the committee last week. And right now, there is no change,” he insisted, putting the emphasis on “right now.” “What there is is time,” warned Ferraz’s spokesperson. “Evidently, the parties are still talking, and until the vote is held, there is only time,” she stressed. Without completely closing the door, therefore, to new changes in the rule, as the Government already did last week in response to the latest rulings by Judge García-Castellón. The truth is that there are open conversations between the different actors and there will be until the last moment.
Esther Peña, in any case, assured that “it is evident that the independence movement, at the time, used reprehensible strategies, but that is not terrorism.”
For ERC and Junts, neither one thing nor the other existed. They still hope that the PSOE will end up accepting that the term terrorism be eliminated from the amnesty exceptions. Republicans and post-convergents put pressure, but with different intensity.
Those of Oriol Junqueras, despite maintaining their amendments, are satisfied with the text that was agreed with the PSOE and Junts to take it to the plenary session. Hence, for ERC the Amnesty law is “the best possible”, but avoids talking about a perfect rule or a shield, as its spokesperson Raquel Sans did yesterday at a press conference.
The leader assumed that, with modifications or not, the law will be approved. “It is a very important milestone for us,” she said. Esquerra is going to try to modify the text, but without the effort causing a tear. In fact, Republicans are convinced that if the changes were approved, the judge would look for another reason to exclude those investigated for Tsunami from the Amnesty law. “We cannot control the García-Castellón family,” said the spokesperson.
Junts, which avoided public statements yesterday, instead increases the pressure for last-minute changes. The post-convergents suspect various options regarding today’s vote, including not supporting the law in the worst case scenario, considering that it does not encompass everything that in their opinion it should cover, and they believe that after García-Castellón’s latest movements the law It might not cover those investigated for terrorism, such as Puigdemont and Marta Rovira and almost thirty other people. The reactivation of the Voloh case by Judge Aguirre, in turn, has put JxCat even more on alert; They fear that the judge will cling to the exclusion of the amnesty for crimes of high treason due to alleged links with Russia.
Sources from Jordi Turull’s party assure that they will negotiate until the last minute to try to get the PSOE to move. Precisely, one of the living amendments that he maintains and that was agreed upon with the PNV would also, in his opinion, grant amnesty to those involved in the Voloh case.
There is room for optimism in Junts, for the PSOE to lend itself to changes, especially after the vice president of the Government Teresa Ribera and the socialist spokesperson, Esther Peña, have denounced these days that García-Castellón “always leans towards same direction” and that there are judicial interferences to undermine the Amnesty law.
