After several days of rum-rum, the PSOE, Junts and Esquerra announced yesterday evening that they had sealed a pact to approve the Amnesty law. The three groups will introduce changes to the wording of the criminal oblivion today in the Congressional Justice Committee, with a joint transactional amendment that provides that serious cases will be excluded from the crimes of terrorism and high treason and the wording will be taken into account of the European law of the same.
This means that the exception of terrorism, torture and high treason is included, but a distinction is made between what is stipulated in the Spanish Penal Code and European legislation. Therefore, terrorism cannot be amnestied in the sense defined by the European Convention on Human Rights and the European directive on terrorism. In this way, the acts of protest, as is the case of Democratic Tsunami, even if they are investigated for terrorism in the National Court and the Supreme Court, would be a priori amnestiable. A similar thing happens with the crime of high treason. The reference in the Charter of the United Nations will be taken into account and the one that “makes an effective and real use of force for the unity of Spain” will be left out of criminal oblivion, according to the sources consulted.
Likewise, it will be clear that the measure has immediate effect and the application period from January 2012 to November 2011 is moved back in time to ensure that those prosecuted in the Court of Auditors are protected. Another relevant aspect is that the embezzlement of public funds related to the process is amnestied if there is no personal profit; allocating funds to 1- Or will be included in the rule.
All these modifications, as emphasized in the joint statement, take into account “the guidelines of constitutional, European and international law, as well as the preliminary report of the Venice Commission”, a document that was relevant to unlock the situation and facilitate understanding.
The pact arrives almost with the horn, when time was running out, and will allow the Spanish Government to move forward, change the screen and open the negotiation of the general budgets of the State for the current year and thus prop up the legislature in a very critical moment for the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, threatened by the Koldo case and the Popular Party’s offensive.
Approving the accounts will be essential to provide political and economic stability to a legislature that cannot shake off its uncertain nature. In fact, the spokesman for JxCat in the Senate, Josep Lluís Cleries, already yesterday referred to the budget issue to the Finance Minister herself, Vice President María Jesús Montero. “If you want a legislature, we want it because we believe that we are at a key moment”, said the senator, who advocated for “amnesty” first so that “there will be some social budgets”.
The pact announced yesterday gained speed last week, so much so that on Saturday former president Carles Puigdemont was already talking about a “new stage”. The noise of the Koldo case and the fact that the Supreme Court opened criminal proceedings against the Junts leader for terrorism, for the Democratic Tsunami protests, did not affect the negotiation.
Shortly after the agreement was reached, the battle for the narrative began between the two pro-independence forces, who are looking to capitalize on the approval of the law. From Together they emphasized that they will vote in favor of a law that “leaves no one out” and that “improvements” will be incorporated into the text suggested by the Venice Commission thanks to the fact that they were planted on January 30 when they rejected the law in plenary. A way to stand up. Republicans, on the other hand, believe that today, as two months ago, there is a “robust and solid law that covers all retaliated persons” and that in the law “the fundamentals remain as they were”. Likewise, they regret that “the delay” has caused some trials to be held and some judges to be given more time for “persecutive actions”.
“The important thing is that there will be an Amnesty law and it will be fully constitutional and in accordance with European law”, highlighted yesterday Pedro Sánchez, shortly before the agreement was made public, in a joint appearance in Brasilia with the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to Sánchez, as the rule was drafted when Junts paralyzed its processing, it already reached all the defendants in the process, despite the new accusations for crimes of terrorism. But because of the latter, JxCat demanded “more guarantees”. And the president of the Spanish Government, in an informal conversation with the press before the visit to Brazil began yesterday, assumed these changes. Sánchez asserted that the law “has a very relevant meaning”. “It leaves behind all the judicial consequences of a territorial and constitutional crisis like the Spanish democracy had never experienced”, he added about the process.
