The Justice Commission of Congress gave the green light this Thursday to the opinion of the Amnesty law that PSOE, ERC and Junts agreed yesterday to agree on a rule that de-judicializes the conflict.
With the support of the investiture partners, the commission has moved forward by 20 votes in favor and 17 against (PP and Vox) all the proposed transactional amendments which, in practice, endorses all the changes agreed upon by the socialists with Junts and CKD.
In this way, the rule will be debated again in the plenary session of the Lower House—predictably next Thursday. It will be a month and a half after the seven Junts deputies overturned the first attempt to approve the norm.
Junts and ERC have used the draft report issued by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on the amnesty law to justify the changes included at the last minute in the law and that have allowed an agreement to be reached with the PSOE to move it forward.
This has been pointed out in a debate that the PP has forced to paralyze for a few minutes to analyze the request of the PP deputy Cuca Gamarra to be able to analyze the changes introduced in the norm.
At the beginning of the meeting, Gamarra asked the president to speak to raise a preliminary question based on the rules of the House and, after denouncing “the dangerous precedent of having news through the media and not through parliamentary means, that extra-parliamentary agreements have been made and outside the national territory”, he has demanded the qualification of the amendments before submitting them to debate and vote.
Gamarra has also charged against the Government and its partners for approving an “unfair, unconstitutional and immoral” law. “Nothing has been closed here, no matter how much the PSOE reiterates it. We are returning to the starting point,” he said.
The witness of the disqualifications has been picked up by Vox spokesperson Javier Ortega Smith, denouncing the “merciless attack on the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary and the equality of Spaniards” by a law, he has pointed out “drafted to the letter for coup plotters and criminals”.
Faced with these criticisms, the PSOE has defended legality. It was the deputy Francisco Aranda who described it as fully constitutional and respectful of European law. “The norm maintains that amnesty will not be granted for the most serious crimes of terrorism, treason, torture or against the independence of Spain. Nor will amnesty be given to possible illicit enrichment of people, in line with European recommendations,” he recalled in his argument.
His government partner, Sumar, has gone one step further, attacking the PP and the judges “aligned with the right.” Deputy Gerardo Pisarello has stated that they are the “big losers” after recalling that “there is a group of judges who have compromised their impartiality and independence simply because of partisanship.”
The ERC deputy Pilar Vallugera has argued that after the grace measure a new path will begin: “This Amnesty law will allow us to return to a point to advance all together again towards this horizon of freedom for my people, which is exactly what we want, and this is a self-determination referendum.”
For his part, the Junts deputy Josep Maria Cervera has justified that his party voted against the first attempt at processing: “Today it is evident that our attitude, our demand to have the best possible law, was the right one. Many people do not “He wanted to understand that attitude. If you allow me a license, it was very correct,” said Cervera, celebrating the step taken today.
