Eleven regional presidents said no to the amnesty, no to the self-determination referendum. They said it eleven times, in eleven different ways, but it was said by the 11 presidents of the PP who attended the meeting of the general commission of Autonomous Communities, in addition to Pere Aragonès, who attended, but left as soon as he finished speaking, and the representative of the Canary Islands.
But not only did the regional presidents talk about amnesty and a self-determination referendum, they also warned that they are against debt forgiveness for Catalonia, or that the new financing system be agreed only with Catalonia and the others have to accept it without being able to intervene in it. the negotiation.
They do not accept it, because “no one is more than anyone”, as the president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, said, or as the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, explained, “no territory is more than another territory, because no Spaniard is more than other”. And the Galician president, Alfonso Rueda, insisted: “Galicia is not above anyone, but we are not going to allow anyone to aspire to be more than anyone else.”
Another common idea addressed to Aragonès, it is very good that he went to the Senate and defended his positions, but he should also have stayed to listen, because “by listening to those who think differently you can even change your mind.”
There was talk of amnesty, a self-determination referendum, but also, and above all, debt forgiveness and the new financing system, and the need for decisions that affect all communities to be decided multilaterally, something which everyone had an impact on, but especially the presidency of Cantabria, María José Sáenz de Buruaga, who complained that the “government only has eyes for the independentistas.” The president of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, even announced that if there is an amninist, his government will appeal it to the Constitutional Court.
The only president who mentioned the word amnesty was the Galician Alfonso Rueda, who based his speech on the defense of equality and the rejection of privileges. “Spain cannot take steps backwards in coexistence” and “involution cannot be called progress.” Rueda defended multilateral meetings like this “because what happens in Spain affects me.”
Galicia, he said, is not going to allow inequality between Spaniards, “because it took many years to achieve equality,” and it is not going to allow “a short auction to be entered into,” because what is at stake “is the future of Spain and Galicia”, which finds that “we do not know what is being negotiated but we know that it concerns us and affects us”.
And it affects him not only in what the existence of Spain as a nation entails, but also in what refers to economic issues that are being decided, because “the only generosity is that which is practiced with one’s own, and not with that of others, and everyone else has the right to know” what is being negotiated.
Alfonso Rueda also complained that the Government of Spain has “a wide berth with Catalonia” and is so close with Galicia, where orthodoxy is applied “and what is approved in Parliament is analyzed with a magnifying glass.” As an example, the unconstitutionality appeal presented against the territorial planning law “without attempting to negotiate first and almost saying that it represents a declaration of independence.”
The Andalusian president, for his part, also emphasized the defense of equality among Spaniards, an equality that, in his opinion, would put an end to the amnesty or the right to self-determination. An amnesty that he rejects “because it would be more than a pardon, it would not be forgiving, it would be asking for their forgiveness and telling them that they should never have been detained or tried.”
“In Spain we are all equal in rights and duties,” stressed Juanma Moreno, for whom “imposing the goals sought by the pro-independence minorities: impunity and privileges, would produce a social fracture. “No territory is more important than another,” cried the president. Andalusian, who was also against debt forgiveness.
For this reason, the president of Andalusia assured that Andalusia “will use all the instruments at its disposal to avoid grievances” and will demand “the same treatment and the same respect” as any other community. Moreno warned that “We are determined to raise our voices in defense of the unity of Spain and will contribute to a united Spain and we will defend that all Spaniards are equal in rights and obligations.”
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, as always, was the one who expressed the same thing as her colleagues, but in a more forceful way. “A pardon is that they forgive you, an amnesty is that the state asks for forgiveness,” the Madrid president began her speech, echoing the words of a Puigdemont collaborator, who spoke of the “shameful absence of the Sánchez Government” and who described the negotiation as acting president of “the greatest betrayal that can be done to a country.
The Madrid president is convinced that Aragonés went to the Senate this Wednesday “because it was convenient for him in his bid with Junts” and saw in his speech that he is acting as spokesperson for Pedro Sánchez in his auction of Spain and the institutions in exchange for following some months or a few years of president.” But he warned: “We are not going to remain silent. Spain is not going to accept this indignity.” “We are not going to remain silent if this crime is committed.”
The turn of presidents ended, who spoke in order of approval of their autonomy statutes, the president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, who denounced the amnesty that “exempts the separatist caste from complying with the law”, but also stood against the forgiveness of the debt, which represents “an insult for those of us who have contained the debt and balanced the accounts”, and was also against the Fiscal Pact, which represents “privileges for support for the investiture”, and warned that if both measures are approved, they will go to the Constitutional Court.
Regional presidents who were expressing their ideas, and those of the PP, but above all defending their territories, the equality of their citizens and rejecting “privileges.” But the PP had something to say. Sources from the leadership emphasized the absence of Sánchez and the presence of Aragonès, to the point of considering “that the PSOE has allowed Pere Aragonès” to act as spokesperson for the coalition government and the approaches that mark the negotiation of the investiture. of Pedro Sánchez”.
For the PP, the president of the Generalitat “has insisted in his appearance in the Senate that we Spaniards must accept that Spain, an oppressive state, unfairly persecuted the leaders of the independence process in Catalonia in 2017, and it is essential that the “PSOE distances itself from these approaches immediately.”
Something that the PP will not accept, although Sánchez has allowed an ERC leader to be the one to verbalize on his behalf the points that are marking the concessions of the socialists to the independence movement. Aragonés has made it clear, in the opinion of the PP: ” He has set the amnesty and the referendum for the independence of Catalonia as the essential points of his support for the socialist candidate. Sánchez has already defended the amnesty and it won’t be long before he does so with the referendum.”
