The former president of the Constitutional Court (TC) Francisco Pérez de los Cobos said this Thursday that the proposed amnesty law for those involved in the independence process of Catalonia “is a challenge to the constitutional order” that does not fit into the Magna Carta, because it violates the principle of separation of powers.
This was stated during his speech at a conference on this initiative organized by the PP in the Congress of Deputies, in which the emeritus magistrates of the TC Jorge Rodríguez Zapata and Andrés Ollero agreed with Pérez de los Cobos that said amnesty would be unconstitutional.
Francisco Pérez de los Cobos has described the initiative of the socialist group as “hugely worrying” and has highlighted that “of the agreements between the PSOE and its parliamentary partners, the most serious is the one signed with Junts because it includes a program to amend the constitutional order of which the so-called amnesty law is the first payment of a leonine pact”.
Regarding this agreement with Junts, he has highlighted “the obscene full assumption by the Government party of the separatist narrative and the negotiation framework that the independentists have been demanding.”
The president emeritus of the TC has regretted that “the party in Government has bought in its entirety the independence movement’s story about the process, including the historical pirouettes.”
Because he has indicated that “the story comes face to face with reality, which was that of an attempted coup d’état frustrated by the actions of the powers of the State, the TC, the judges and courts, the Security Forces and Corps of the State and the king”.
But he considers that it is “something even worse, the full acceptance of all the demands of the independence movement, a self-determination referendum, a privileged financing system for Catalonia, an amnesty law, direct participation of Catalonia in European and, in general, international institutions.” and international mediator to guarantee compliance with the agreements”.
He has also shown his concern about the reference in said agreements to “lawfare” because it “delegitimizes our rule of law and ultimately our democracy, it is purely and simply the acceptance that the jurisdictional activities carried out against the independence supporters who committed crimes have constituted political processes”.
And he recalled that “the will of the constituent was to exclude from the established powers of the Cortes Generales that of amnesty.”
“This exclusion of the amnesty is perfectly consistent with the reservation of jurisdiction that the Constitution establishes in favor of the courts and the amnesty represents an invasion by the legislative power in the area that the Constitution reserves for the judiciary,” Pérez de los Cobos insisted. , which understands that the initiative also seriously undermines the principle of equality.
And he has stated that “it is hidden from no one that the purpose of the norm has not been and is not what is formally declared, but rather what results from the deal signed between the Government and Junts, that is, self-amnesty in exchange for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez with the vote in favor of all the Junts deputies and this is what leads to signing the constitutionality of what until yesterday was not constitutionality.”
For this reason, Pérez de los Cobos has encouraged “fighting the rule in the ordinary courts and rigorously appealing it before the TC”, as well as going to Europe.
For his part, Jorge Rodríguez Zapata has commented that “it is a disastrous and dangerous bill that would put an end to the constitutional democracy that we have given ourselves.”
This is why he has even urged us to “defend democracy with all the means at our disposal, through popular demonstrations or through non-compliance with the laws when others do not comply with the laws.”
However, Rodríguez Zapata has been pessimistic that a question of unconstitutionality could prosper before the TC, and has gone so far as to say that “if the TC continues making rulings like the last ones we have read, I believe that Spain would not lose anything.” if it were deleted.”
In any case, he said that “in Spain there are 5,000 independent and brave judges who are not going to let themselves be intimidated.”
In his turn, Andrés Ollero has clarified that “there was indeed an amnesty, we have a precedent, but it served to close a dictatorship and give way to a democratic system and the result of a consensus, but now it is a revanchist attempt to break late”.
