The controversial amnesty law for those accused of the process, which the PSOE agreed with Junts and ERC and which allowed the new investiture of Pedro Sánchez, has a long and tortuous parliamentary road ahead of it. A route full of mines, and always under the intense heavy artillery fire of the Popular Party and the ultra-right of Vox, before the rule, once approved, faces the litmus test of constitutional validation and judicial interpretation by demonstrate its true political effects.
But the Government warned that, even before this law was approved, its “positive effects” were already evident, due to the reincorporation of Carles Puigdemont’s formation into the Spanish political sphere. “Today all the actors move under the same umbrella: politics. We all use the same mechanism: dialogue. We all work within the same framework: the Constitution. And we all have the same goal: to improve coexistence”, emphasized the minister’s spokesperson, Pilar Alegría.
At the same time, the proposal for an organic amnesty law – “for institutional, political and social normalization in Catalonia”, as it was named by its authors – passed the first parliamentary procedure yesterday evening in Congress, with approval by absolute majority of its consideration. This initiative, against what it seems due to the climate of strong social and political rejection led by the right – polls raise the rejection of citizenship to 60% – was born, however, with the endorsement of a majority absolute of 178 seats. In other words, the entire bloc of the investiture – PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Junts, Bildu, PNB and BNG –, except for Coalició Canària, which opposes the amnesty, alongside PP, Vox and UPN, for adding 172 votes against. The success of this first vote was guaranteed in advance, but it was necessary to wait until late at night to certify it, in the vote by call of each deputy that culminated the plenary session.
In the absence of Sánchez – who in the afternoon received the King of Jordan in La Moncloa, before traveling to Strasbourg after having cast his telematic vote – the dialectical duel in plenary took place between the spokesperson of the socialist group , Patxi López, and the head of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Patxi López contrasted, first of all, the objectives that the PSOE sets with this initiative and the strategy that in his opinion the PP is following to justify its opposition. “You want to fuel the conflict and we want to open a new time for reunion. You play to scare and we want to sow hope”, reprimanded the popular group.
And he reproached the PP for wanting the vote to be called by each deputy. “We have no problem portraying ourselves”, he replied, despite the fact that the intention is, as he regretted, to be “pointed out” later as “enemies” of Spain by the right. But he assured that the 121 socialist deputies would vote in favor of it, without fissures: “The more they threaten us, the more convinced we are of what we will do.”
The socialist spokesman warned that the right condemns the amnesty, announcing the apocalypse, without offering any alternative for the resolution of the conflict in Catalonia. “We have opted for politics”, he defended, after the PP government opted for “rage” to face the process. “We have recovered politics to solve political problems”, he insisted. First with the dialogue table, then with the pardons and the repeal of sedition in the previous legislature and now with the amnesty. “The first steps to deflate the crisis have worked”, he assured.
Patxi López tried to dismantle all the PP alerts against the rule. “The amnesty is exceptional, but it is not unconstitutional”, he warned. In fact, he recalled that in 1977 “amnesty created democracy”. “The Constitution itself was born from an amnesty”, he assured. And he stressed that the Magna Carta did not “include it, but neither did it exclude it”. “The amnesty law is a call of hope for reunion. Adding, integrating, living together is the only possible answer. Dividing, confronting, rejecting will never be the solution. Socialists do not break Spain, we do politics to unite it”, he stressed.
But, right after, Feijóo denounced that this initiative “is a national and international shame”. According to the leader of the PP, it is only “the first payment of an investiture” that Sánchez bought from Puigdemont, “for seven votes”.
Feijóo described the law as “fraud”, in addition to implying “political corruption”, since, as he criticized, “exchanges impunity for power”, in addition to attacking the separation of powers and being “a humiliation for to the Spanish people”. The leader of the PP assured that yesterday was the “saddest and most decadent session” in Congress since the attempted coup d’état of 23-F. And he reiterated that he will do everything possible so that it does not see the light of day . “Long live democracy and long live the Constitution!” concluded Feijóo.
The rest of the parliamentary spokespersons reiterated, like the PSOE and the PP, their previously known positions. Mikel Legarda (PNB), with his usual sober and moderate tone, called for an end to “months of inflammatory rhetoric” for the amnesty. “The solution will not come through the permanent train crash”, he warned.
Josep Maria Cervera (Junts) and Gabriel Rufián (ERC) fought in their space to emphasize their effectiveness in the negotiation with the PSOE. “When Junts enters the equation, things happen that we were told were impossible”, celebrated Cervera, who saw “a window opened for the resolution of this historical conflict”.
And Rufián also looked at the next screen: “We are ready to win or lose a referendum. And you?”.
