The Amnesty law will be approved on Thursday in the plenary session of Congress, after the agreement reached by the PSOE, Esquerra and Junts on Wednesday. This rule is the passport and visa that the socialists need for the legislature to move forward and for the pro-independence groups to address other key issues such as the general budgets of the State and the legislative package of the Government of Pedro Sánchez. It is also a salvo to change the scene and that the Koldo case is not the backdrop for all the acts of the function. But the consensus has not been an easy road, it has arrived after a first failed attempt and a complex negotiation with three parties as protagonists and rivals. A fourth, which opposes it, the Popular Party, has also collaborated. Without a doubt, without pretending to be.
The first attempt
When Junts voted against the Amnesty law in Congress on January 30, because he considered that it did not offer enough guarantees, he was walking on a tightrope, but he could not fall into the void. I knew that underneath was the tarpaulin: go back to the Justice committee and continue negotiating for another fortnight or a month. The decision caused anger in the rest of the formations that support criminal oblivion. There was also misunderstanding in some of his paintings. But after that first phase of anger, socialists and post-convergents discreetly resumed contacts to rectify the situation. With the Galician elections on the horizon, there was almost no noise. Only one meeting in Barcelona was made public in which they certified their distance.
The first approach
Last week, a different scenario began to emerge. In unison, both the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, in Madrid, and the former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, in Strasbourg, issued similar signals, positive messages. They trusted in the approval of the rule. There was barely a week left to unlock the situation. Contacts had already been resumed and negotiations resumed. Amidst the storm of the Koldo case, there was an exchange of documents. In that phase ERC received the proposals. On Wednesday, the PSOE informed ERC that it remained firm: the law will not be modified. On Thursday he changed his mind. The talks were about the start date of the amnesty – in the end, November 2011, due to the Court of Auditors – and the most important changes: the exclusion for the crimes of terrorism and treason.
The key report
On Friday, March 1, there was a turning point. The draft of the report that the Venice Commission – consultative body of the Council of Europe – will present in mid-March reached all the parliamentary groups in Congress and the Senate. It was the element that ended up triggering the agreement, although paradoxically the report was carried out at the proposal of the PP in an effort to oppose it. So much so that the following day Puigdemont, in an event in the south of France, gave amnesty as a certainty. Minister Bolaños canceled his planned attendance that Saturday at the congress of European socialists held in Rome. It was time to move forward for good, and the phones began to smoke.
In this preliminary report, following the visit of the members of the Venice Commission to Spain in February, they all saw a point of support for their position and aspirations. “He made our lives a lot easier, his recommendations opened up alternatives for us”, they acknowledge. The PSOE saw a way to justify the amendments to a text they defended as impeccable weeks before. Together, at the same time, he points out that he endorsed his vote against on January 30 and that it was a “landing track” for the PSOE, which had reluctance to change the wording, especially regarding the references to terrorism. As an alternative, along the way, they put on the table in the previous weeks to modify the Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure law. Both ERC and Junts reject it. It’s not the time. But yes, for sure, in the future. In that document, in addition, they came across a recommendation related to the embezzlement of public funds that could later have caused some headaches for the promoters of the rule, since if the law had been approved on January 30 there would not have been margin to modify it.
A point of no return
On Saturday, March 2, everything seemed closed and it made me think that there would be an agreement on Thursday. No extension of the deadlines was requested from the Justice committee. But in ERC there were still reservations regarding the modifications considered by the PSOE and Junts. Republicans do not enter the exclusion for treason, but they do not like the changes.
Negotiation between ERC and Junts
The discrepancies were resolved between the general secretaries of Junts and ERC, Jordi Turull and Marta Rovira, on Sunday with a cross of messages and on Monday with a call. Both, despite the political squabbles, maintain a good personal relationship from the time of the 9-N consultation and the Junts pel Sí stage. The PSOE saw with good eyes that the pro-independence parties agreed in advance on the amendments. Everything was done in the technical field, with the lawyer Gonzalo Boye and the deputy of the Congress Josep Pagès for the post-convergent side, and with the republican Marta Vilaret. There were other people who collaborated in the legal field who prefer to remain anonymous.
In this part of the story, the versions differ, in a context of battle for the story and struggle between ERC and Junts to capitalize on the proceeds of the amnesty in view of the next electoral appointments. Junts assures that the initiative to negotiate in advance with his ex-partner is his, and that Santos Cerdán, secretary of organization in Ferraz and regular interlocutor for Puigdemont, approved it. On the other hand, from ERC they point out that it was the PSOE who urged Junts to sit down with the republicans after receiving some of their proposals.
To address technical aspects, there were indeed video conferences between the representatives of the three formations. The political negotiations, on the other hand, were at all times parallel and there was no tripartite table or any joint video conference between the PSOE, Junts and ERC. Bolaños and Cerdán communicated with Turull – who after his heart failure tried to connect from the hospital to a meeting, but relatives and friends did not let him – and with Miriam Nogueras, on the one hand, and on the other, with the republican Josep Maria Jové. The PSOE points out that there was “a lot of exchange of papers” between the three parties. “There have been hundreds of versions of the law”, they point out. ERC perceives from that moment on a Junts “much more receptive than before”. “They accept almost all our modifications”, they say.
The colophon
On Wednesday at noon there was a technical agreement closed on the last details to introduce changes in the law, with less than 24 hours left until the appointment of the Justice committee. The text agreed between ERC and Junts was sent at 2 pm to PSOE negotiators, who returned it at 5 pm with some additions. And at 6 p.m. the three parties concluded the negotiation with an agreement. They agreed to release a joint statement at 8 p.m., very brief, only to inform about the pact, not its content. The one issued by the PSOE and ERC carried the three logos on the header. Together he chose to put only his own. The content was revealed on Thursday morning, when the meeting in Congress began. It was previously shared with the rest of the formations that support the law, and Sumar, the PNB and Bildu incorporated their signature into the amendments.
The battle for the story
Beyond the common message, the confrontation of stories began. Each party did its own thing. The PSOE declared the process dead, Junts boasted of having been planted on January 30 and achieved “improvements”, and ERC emphasized that the text was practically the same, with mere “aesthetic” changes. Gone are hours of discrete negotiations with some measure of security in connections, such as Signal calls. Even so, something happens: in the last week, Vilaret sees how, while writing in Word, her computer automatically takes screenshots, up to seven or eight times, without permission and without the republican asking for it.
