The processing of the amnesty law today faces a new step with the incorporation or expulsion of partial amendments proposed by various parliamentary groups. Of the 46 amendments proposed, there are only eight agreed upon by the PSOE, Sumar, ERC and Bildu, although any scenario regarding their approval is possible given the existing tensions between Junts and ERC.
The agreements reached will be reflected in today’s vote in the presentation of the Justice Commission of the Congress of Deputies. In this process, it will be decided which partial amendments are included in the text that will go to a vote next week in the Justice Commission and then, the last week of January, it will reach the Plenary and from there it will go to the Senate, where it could be delayed for two months until its return to the lower house for final approval and entry into force.
The Commission has 37 votes. The PP has 14; the PSOE 12, Sumar and Vox three, and the rest of the parties one. For the amendments to be incorporated, more yeses than noes are needed, that is, 18. However, those that are rejected may still remain alive for Tuesday’s Commission and for the plenary session.
Only eight of the 46 amendments proposed have been agreed between the PSOE and other parties. However, it turns out that Junts does not support these corrections, mainly of a technical nature, in an attempt to achieve deeper changes in the text of the amnesty to favor the immediate future of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and people in his circle. . If they are rejected, the proposal would come out as presented by the socialists, although parliamentary sources recognize that the situation is somewhat “Kafkaesque” because it is the main interested parties – Junts and ERC – who could torpedo the text.
Among these is a new perimeter that defines who the amnesty can affect; users of social networks and the media as beneficiaries of the measure and the elimination of the records of those people amnestied. Crimes against the international community would be left out.
The party led by Puigdemont seeks mainly through its twelve amendments to protect the application of the amnesty for the former president automatically as soon as it comes into force. It demands immediate and unrestricted application, in particular freedom of movement, to allow the former president to return to Spain without having to wait for appeals or issues raised by the courts.
That is why they also propose that appeals before the Constitutional Court or preliminary ruling questions before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) cannot be suspended. Currently, European jurisprudence dictates that once the issue is raised, the processes are paralyzed, which could delay the effectiveness of the amnesty for months or even years.
Among the four amendments presented by ERC alone is the return of administrative fines for the ‘gag law’.
Both Junts and ERC agree that the resources are not suspensive as well as removing terrorism crimes among those excluded from the amnesty. The PSOE did not want to give in in this section due to the risk of contravening European law. However, for these two formations it is key that they withdraw due to the Tsunami Democràctic cause due to the unrest in Catalonia following the sentence handed down by the Supreme Court in 2019 for sedition against the leaders of the process that is in the National Court and Puigdemont and the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, among others, are accused in it. The current proposal only talks about leaving out terrorism cases with a final sentence.
Junts is forcing until the end to include among the list of amnestied those affected by “artificial police operations”, to try to include those prosecuted or convicted for matters having nothing to do with the process but who from this bench believe that they are victims of the State sewers or ‘lawfare’. It also intends to extend the amnesty by one year, from November 2011 and not from 2012, which would benefit convicts like Francesc Homs.
