“This was probably not the next step I wanted to take, but it is a coherent and consistent step with the policy of normalization and stabilization in Catalonia,” admitted Pedro Sánchez regarding the controversial amnesty law proposal for those accused of the independence process. promoted by the PSOE and negotiated with Junts and ERC to seal his investiture agreements, in the first interview he gives, this Thursday on TVE, after his new investiture as President of the Government.
After granting pardons to the imprisoned leaders of the process in the last legislature, the head of the Executive has acknowledged that his change of opinion on the amnesty was due to the result of the last general elections: “What happened is July 23” , he admitted. The result of these elections thus prompted him to assemble a new parliamentary majority on which to support his investiture, with the necessary concurrence of Junts and ERC, to be able to stop a government of the Popular Party and the far-right Vox in Spain. But he has insisted that this legislative initiative, endorsed by the majority of the investiture bloc, aims to “definitively overcome the conflict of 2017 and for Catalan society to fully rediscover itself.” “It is necessary to normalize and stabilize the political situation in Catalonia,” he defended.
But Sánchez has made a prediction in this regard: “I am convinced that, just as has happened with the divorce law and the same-sex marriage law, those who are demonstrating in the streets today will end up remembering that old saying.” I don’t remember if I’ve seen you.” That is to say, over time even the right will end up benefiting from the amnesty law, “because it will be good for the country, in terms of coexistence, and because we are reincorporating into the political system political actors who since 2017 denied their participation in the governance of Spain.”
“In politics, as in life, you have to choose between ideal solutions and possible solutions,” he argued. By not having an absolute majority, Sánchez has thus justified that, faced with the amnesty, he has had to decide on the possible versus the ideal. “I understand that there are many conservative voters, and even those who are not conservative, refractory and who have doubts about this decision. But I can guarantee, to both, that this decision will be good for coexistence in Catalonia, and therefore in Spain, and that obviously everything we do will be within the Constitution,” he stressed.
Sánchez has also referred to the meeting that the PSOE and Junts are going to hold this Saturday, with an international verifier, to begin the negotiation on their investiture agreements. The President of the Government, however, did not want to confirm that the meeting will take place in Geneva (Switzerland) as planned. “We are not yet in a position to say where it will be,” he warned. He also did not want to reveal the identity of the verifier who will mediate between the parties, although he has indicated that “the person who will accompany us in this dialogue process will be known, both with ERC and with Junts.” But not yet. “We are talking with the two organizations, I cannot say in advance, but it will indeed be known,” he insisted.
The head of the Executive, in any case, has once again justified the figure of this mediator between the PSOE and the independence parties. “We have very different starting positions, they are defending the independence of Catalonia and we are defending the state of the autonomies and self-government of Catalonia,” he alleged. “It is good that if two do not understand each other, in this case at the table with ERC and at the table with Junts, there is a third party to accompany us, to verify that the agreements are put into operation,” he insisted, given the “positions very disparate” and the “extraordinary distrust” that he has assured that the PSOE also has with these political actors. “If two do not understand each other, having a third party accompany us in this verification work can help us reach agreements,” he reiterated.
He has highlighted, in any case, that it is an “exceptional” mechanism. “Hopefully in the future we will not need this verification system, because that will mean that we have built a trust that I, honestly, do not have completely or totally as general secretary of the PSOE,” he said.
Asked if there have been cases of ‘lawfare’ (judicial war) against the Catalan independence movement in Spain, as reflected in the investiture agreement signed between the PSOE and Junts that has set all the associations of judges on fire, Sánchez was blunt: “ Public institutions in our country have definitely been instrumentalized.” And he has stressed that “the police have been instrumentalized, unfortunately in our country, to persecute political adversaries, to hide evidence in judicial cases that affected the Popular Party, definitely, that is Operation Kitchen.”
In this first interview after his inauguration, Sánchez insisted that he is going to “reach out” to the Popular Party, to try to resolve the “absurd and intolerable blockade” of the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), which has already accumulated five years with his mandate expired. However, he has ruled out trying to renew the governing body of the judges without the participation of the main opposition party, a path that he had already been warned against by the European Commission in the previous legislature. “We have a mandate from the Constitution, the majorities are established in the Constitution, and I am not going to alter those majorities, because I comply with the Constitution,” he stressed.
Sánchez has not ruled out calling an upcoming meeting with the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to try to unblock this situation, although he has assured that it will not be “in the next few hours”, because he is embarking on a new trip today. this time to Dubai, to participate in the Climate Summit. “I am going to try to have the best and greatest dialogue with the opposition,” he said. But he has warned that the renewal of the CGPJ “is not a stone in the shoe, it is a huge rock in the possible understanding that we can have with the PP.”
The head of the Executive, however, has demanded that the PP abandon the “catastrophism” that Spain is breaking up and sinking, and other dire omens, in order to be able to face a “fruitful” legislature in their relationship and understanding. Although he has questioned the PP’s strategy and that Feijóo has appointed Miguel Tellado, who he urged him to leave Spain “in a trunk”, as his spokesperson in Congress. “He has won insult over respect. But on the part of the PSOE and the progressive coalition government, we are not going to respond to the insult with more insults, to the noise with more noise, to the anger with more anger.”
Sánchez has confirmed, on the other hand, that the general budgets of the State for 2024, fundamental for the stability of this new mandate at least in its first stages, will not be ready before the end of this year. “We are going to extend the budgets for the beginning of next year,” he acknowledged. “But we hope to have the new budgets approved by the first quarter of next year,” he confided.
At the same time, the president has taken for granted the upcoming departure of the first vice president and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, towards the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB), for which she is a candidate and which must be resolved in a manner immediate. Her departure from the Executive, Sánchez has admitted, will imply “a replacement” in the Council of Ministers. “It won’t be immediate, it will take a few weeks,” he indicated. “Personally, it will be difficult for me, because she has been a close collaborator in very difficult times. “She has been one of the best Ministers of Economy that Spanish democracy has had,” he highlighted.
Sánchez has also acknowledged that he already has in mind who will replace Calviño as head of the Economy portfolio. “I have some ideas,” he admitted, without revealing his name.
