Gabriel Rufián took to the stage yesterday, in the investiture debate of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, with a message addressed to Pedro Sánchez: if he wants the votes of ERC to be re-elected president, one is not enough eventual amnesty law “for the events of October 1” of 2017. Amnesty, he said, must be the first step to hold a referendum on self-determination. “Either the amnesty provides a way out for the people of Catalonia to vote for a way out of their political conflict or it won’t work,” warned Rufián.
The ERC spokesperson made his initial speech in Catalan, with a closed defense of the amnesty. “Perhaps some people’s heads explode when they hear it, but the first beneficiary of the amnesty will be this State and by extension this democracy because democracy is not being destroyed, in any case it is being built”, he said.
Rufián censured that Feijóo said in his initial speech that the amnesty is “the most important threat” and the “main challenge to democracy in the history of this country”. And he assured that he was surprised that what ETA, the ultra-right, the 23-F, the sewers of the State or the sexist murders were not considered as such. “They didn’t say anything when they amnestied 30,000 real fraudsters and coup plotters,” he criticized.
Therefore, he defended that, “like it more or less”, amnesty is “a tool, a political mechanism historically used to resolve political conflicts and institutional blockages”. “I would say that the conflict that Catalonia is currently experiencing is a political conflict”, he added, and an investiture with the supports that are currently needed to carry it forward “is an institutional block”.
In plenary, arguing in favor of amnesty and self-determination, Rufián vindicated the work of his party because the Spanish Government has gone from wanting to arrest pro-independence activists, with reference to Carles Puigdemont, to wanting to negotiate with them. He said that ERC “has broken its face” for this to be the case. And he welcomed Junts, who he said are now “appropriating past struggles that they never defended”.
“Now that purity cards are not being distributed to negotiate in Catalonia and that you need to negotiate more than ever, we have a historic opportunity to do so”, he emphasized.
In his reply, Feijóo directly challenged Sánchez. “Rufián said it, the amnesty is the first step for another October 1st. Mr. Sánchez, Rufián said it, not me. And what will you do? Is Rufián lying to us or are you lying to us? If not, there is no investiture,” he said. Feijóo also assured that ERC wanted to talk to the PP after the elections. Faced with the surprise of the ERC spokesperson, he insisted: “Yes, Mr. Rufián, you don’t know that? Well, I won’t say who.” And he quipped that “the PSOE won’t let them talk” with the PP.
