Gabriel Rufián took the stand this Tuesday, in the investiture debate of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, with a message addressed to Pedro Sánchez: if he wants the votes of ERC to be re-elected president, a possible amnesty law is not enough “for the events of October 1” of 2017. The amnesty, he said, should be the first step to holding a self-determination referendum. “Either the amnesty contemplates a solution for the people of Catalonia to vote for a solution to their political conflict or it will not work,” Rufián warned.
The ERC spokesperson made his initial intervention in Catalan, with a closed defense of the amnesty. “Maybe some people’s heads will explode when they hear it, but the first beneficiary of the amnesty will be this State and by extension this democracy because democracy is not in destruction, in any case, it is under construction,” he stated.
Rufián criticized Feijóo for saying in his initial intervention that the amnesty is the “greatest threat” and the “main challenge to democracy in the history of this country.” And he assured that he is surprised that what ETA, the extreme right, 23-F, the sewers of the State or the sexist murders were not considered as such. “They didn’t say anything when they gave amnesty to 30,000 fraudsters and real coup plotters,” he criticized.
Therefore, he defended that, “like it more or less,” the amnesty is “a tool, a political mechanism historically used to resolve political conflicts and institutional blockages.” “I would say that the conflict that Catalonia is currently experiencing is a political conflict,” she added, and an investiture with the support that is needed at this moment to move it forward “is an institutional blockage.”
In the middle of his plea in favor of amnesty and self-determination, Rufián vindicated the work of his party so that the Spanish Government has gone from wanting to arrest independentists, in reference to Carles Puigdemont, to wanting to negotiate with them. He said that ERC “has broken its face” to make this happen. And he welcomed Junts, who he said now “appropriate past struggles that they never defended.”
“Now that purity cards are not being distributed to negotiate in Catalonia and that you need to negotiate more than ever, we have a historic opportunity to do so,” he highlighted.
In his reply, Feijóo directly questioned Sánchez. “Rufián has said it, the amnesty is the first step towards another October 1st. Mr. Sánchez, Rufián said it, not me. And what are you going to do? Is Rufián lying to us or are you lying to us? If not, there is no investiture,” he said. Feijóo also assured that ERC wanted to talk to the PP after the elections. To the surprise of the ERC spokesperson, he insisted: “Yes, Mr. Rufián, don’t you know? “Well, I won’t say who.” And he ironically said that “the PSOE does not let them speak” with the PP.
