The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, put “on the table” a reform of the Criminal Procedure Law (LECrim), with the aim of shortening the deadlines for judicial investigation, which in his opinion could also serve to “correct some of the doubts” that Junts per Catalunya maintains and that stopped the parliamentary processing of the Amnesty law in Congress. But given the doubts generated within the Executive itself by this reform of the LECrim, from which, even without knowing its content, the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, has publicly distanced herself, in Moncloa they already assumed last Wednesday that , without giving up on proposing this legislative review, it should not be linked to “the solution” to undo the amnesty.
And this was recognized this Thursday by the Minister of Transport and member of the PSOE executive, Óscar Puente. “The Spanish procedure in the criminal field is excessively long, justice when it arrives late is no longer justice, and there are instructions that last for many years,” said the minister, in an interview on Antena 3, to defend this new reform. of the LECrim. “But linking it exclusively to the Amnesty law, from a strictly legal point of view, may not be the most convenient,” Puente admitted.
As soon as Pedro Sánchez opened the door to this reform of the LECrim, however, the Government itself recognized the difficulty of “balancing” these deadlines, so that judges and prosecutors have enough time to address complex investigations but which, at the time, these causes do not drag on forever, leaving the accused defenseless. In any case, the Executive has not found allies to undertake this reform, and even less linked to an unblocking of the Amnesty law, which still does not approximate positions between the PSOE and Junts.
So what is the solution to unblock the amnesty for those accused of the process? “Formulas are being sought,” Puente indicated. “What it is about is finding a fit so that in a tremendously complicated and complex situation, we can carry out the spirit of the proposal with which we began this mandate, which is to turn the page, settle this issue, reverse it and transfer it to the field.” strictly political and remove it from the legal sphere,” said the minister, in reference to the effort to resolve the political conflict in Catalonia.
Puente has insisted, in any case, that the intention of the Government and the PSOE is not to introduce more significant changes in the Amnesty law proposal, which has returned to the Congressional Justice commission after its approval in the full, given the rejection of the formation of Carles Puigdemont. “The Amnesty law has constitutional filters to pass and the changes that are made have to respect that premise. “We have gone as far as we could go in the Amnesty law,” he stressed.
Despite the uncertainty of the situation, and the lack of agreement between the PSOE and Junts, Óscar Puente has agreed with Pedro Sánchez in the conviction that the law will end up seeing the light. “We are convinced that it will finally move forward,” said the minister. “It’s common sense. At this moment, it would make no sense, after the path we have taken, to frustrate the expectations of the whole of Catalan society and many people affected by judicial proceedings linked to the process who are hoping that it will go forward and that Catalonia can be redirected. the situation in strictly political terms,” he confided.
The PSOE leadership corroborates that new avenues are being explored to try to undo the amnesty. And although they admit that the communication channels with Junts remain open, they recognize that the pace of negotiations has been reduced and that they are currently in “a plateau phase.” After Puigdemont’s party voted against the drafting of the Amnesty law, on Tuesday of last week in the plenary session of Congress, both parties took time to evaluate the situation and reconsider their positions. “There is time,” the socialists concede, in any case, shaking off the pressure.
After the vote against JxCat, the rule has returned to the Justice Commission of Congress, where it has until February 21 to issue a new opinion that can be put to a vote again in plenary. But if an agreement has not been reached by this date, there is the option of approving an extension of another fifteen days, so there is room until next March 6. “There is time,” they insist in the PSOE.
