“We feel with the strength and duty to remind everyone that beyond short-term tactics there are very noble objectives and aspirations that this country deserves to come true.” Oriol Junqueras, in the national council of ERC, has urged Junts this morning to seal the pact for the Amnesty law in revalidation. March 7 is the deadline and the tom-tom sounds of an imminent agreement between the PSOE and Junts to move forward, this time, with criminal oblivion.
That the amnesty agreement is close has been announced by Jaume Asens, who is running as a candidate for Sumar in the European elections on June 9. Asens has assured that the PSOE accepts amendments from Junts and that the law “is imminent.” Jordi Turull, general secretary of the post-convergents, has put the brakes on and has stressed that Junts will report on the negotiations and agreements that the formation may reach. “We are not responsible for what third parties say or speculate about hypothetical agreements,” Turull said.
In any case, the president of the Republicans has argued that ERC has been the only political party that has defended the amnesty “for four or five years.” “We have often defended it alone, but finally there is a broad consensus” for the amnesty, Junqueras maintained, referring again to JxCat.
Junqueras has demanded “responsibility” from the post-convergents to endorse an amnesty law that, in his opinion, will allow the release of “hundreds and hundreds of people, even thousands of people.” Furthermore, he has relied on the Venice Commission draft, released yesterday, which endorses amnesties as elements of pacification in political conflicts. “The Venice Commission strictly agrees with everything that we have defended for so long,” Junqueras stated.
Junts has also endorsed this draft. Those from Turull consider that it includes one of the complaints that they sent in writing to the Commission. Namely, that the limits of international law in reference to serious violations of human rights “are not necessarily the same as serious crimes under domestic law.”
The amnesty is the tool, according to Junqueras, that the independence movement has to respond to part of the Spanish judicial leadership, “who decided that they did not want to do justice, but politics.” “We have to put justice where they put injustice,” he said after opening a criminal case by the Supreme Court against former president Carles Puigdemont and ERC deputy Ruben Wagensberg for the alleged crime of terrorism by Democratic Tsunami.
However, the Republican also wanted to insist on the idea repeatedly expressed by Pere Aragonès that criminal oblivion has to mean, not only the end of “political persecution”, but also the beginning of a negotiation “under equal conditions.” with the State for an independence referendum.
The reply to Junqueras came a few minutes later from Laura Borràs. The president of Junts has regretted Esquerra’s haste: “ERC wanted to approve the amnesty as soon as possible; we wanted it to be as robust as possible so that it does not leave anyone behind.” “We have been told that we are too radical (…). What bothers us is that we are radically pro-independence,” she added.
With the Venice Commission draft in hand, Junts has also regretted the criticism it has received for rejecting the Amnesty law in Congress on January 30, thus postponing its possible approval. “It confirms that we are right, that is why we continue working so that the Amnesty law is comprehensive and immediately applicable,” he concludes.
