The acting Government of Pedro Sánchez holds up as a success the effect in Catalonia of the pardons to the leaders of the 2017 process, no matter how controversial and controversial they were in the last legislature, and thus prepares the ground for a possible amnesty.
An initiative to which Sánchez has not yet put lyrics to it, but whose music would follow the same rhythm as the pardons. In other words, making progress in the resolution of the political conflict in Catalonia. But it is a project, demanded by Catalan independence in order to set a new investiture of Sánchez on track, before which, as already happened with the pardons or the penal reform, the right-wing bloc, and some voices of the PSOE itself, they put their hands on their heads.
Taking advantage of the fact that the Court (TS) yesterday rejected the first appeals against these pardons, although without going into the substance of the matter, the acting Minister of the Presidency, the socialist Félix Bolaños, admitted that this is the way to continue “to heal wounds” in Catalonia.
Bolaños expressed the satisfaction of the central government “because the Supreme Court has ratified the full legality of the pardons we granted in 2021”. “Those pardons were an important step for coexistence in Catalonia”, he emphasized. “At the time it was a brave decision, which many people did not understand, but two years later everyone knows that it was a right and useful decision, which served for coexistence and to heal wounds in Catalonia”. he emphasized.
And, without wanting to reveal even a single comma of the scope of the possible amnesty under study, the minister insisted that “this is the purpose of the Government and the path we have in the PSOE”. “Coexistence, law, and finally closing the wounds that were caused in Catalonia in 2017”, he listed.
“The PP, when it does not govern, always says that the unity of Spain is at risk”, criticized Bolaños. Now with Sánchez, just like almost twenty years ago with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. “Seriously, does anyone believe that today, in 2023, there is a greater risk of our country breaking up, of constitutional bankruptcy, than there was in 2017 when the PP was in power, when illegal referendums were held and laws of disconnection?”, he questioned.
“It is clear that this Government has always worked for coexistence, to heal wounds and to normalize the institutional and social situation in Catalonia. And that’s what we do”, he promised. “The problem of the PP is that it does not understand Spain, and it is reciprocal, because Spain does not understand the PP either”, concluded Bolaños before the “preventive demonstration” called by Alberto Núñez Feijóo in Madrid against the amnesty.
The PSOE also counterattacked the PP, recalling the “cedings” of José María Aznar to Jordi Pujol in the Majestic pact in 1996. Among them, the suppression of civil governors, the transfer of 30% of the ‘IRPF or the disappearance of the Civil Guard of Traffic in Catalonia. “It’s a shame to listen to a former president of the government, who negotiated amnesties and even spoke Catalan in private to get the government”, retorted to Aznar the acting economic vice-president, Nadia Calviño.
