After the back-and-forth between the plenary session and the Justice committee due to the disagreement between the PSOE and Junts – with ERC resisting the role of stonewalling guest -, Congress yesterday validated the corrected version of the Amnesty law, which went ahead with the votes of the parliamentary majority of the investiture and the rejection of PP and Vox: 178 votes in favor and 172 against.
Once approved in the Lower House, the rule will be debated in the Senate, where the absolute majority of the PP will keep it fallow for two months, the maximum term established by the regulation, reformed ad hoc to delay the procedure, before returning it to the Congress to approve it definitively.
For the opposition, headed by the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the amnesty represents a “blackmail” to all Spaniards, who have seen how Pedro Sánchez “has complied with everything” demanded by Junts and ERC to continue in the Moncloa: “He has granted amnesty to terrorism, corruption, high treason and whatever is needed”, charged Feijóo, who, in a Catalan pre-election tone, predicted that yesterday’s day, which was lived without much enthusiasm in the pro-independence ranks themselves, despite the final embrace between Junts and ERC deputies, “will mark the beginning of the end of the Government”.
The ultra-right went further and Santiago Abascal accused Sánchez of “having no scruples other than clinging to the blue bank” and of subjecting Spain to a “humiliation” with this “mischief”.
And that’s where the matter ended, because the favorable groups defended en masse the virtues of a law that, they stressed, returns to the paths of political dialogue a conflict that should never have been litigated.
The first was the spokeswoman for the commons, Aina Vidal, representing Sumar, who praised this opportunity to leave behind “hate and confrontation and Spain in black and white that denies plurality”. And then it was the PSOE’s turn: Patxi López spoke of the need to “work for reconciliation with brave policies” in the face of the “constant confrontation” that he attributed to the PP.
Together, he distanced himself from the Socialists, arguing that the amnesty was not made out of “conviction”, but because Sánchez needed the seven votes of Carles Puigdemont to be re-elected, but he congratulated himself because the final text “does not leave independence leader out and adapts to European standards”.
With its president, Oriol Junqueras, in the guest gallery, the republicans celebrated the arrival of a law that they have been waiting for for four years, after the pardons, a previous step that they attributed to themselves and without which they cannot ‘he could have given what was done yesterday, which will not be the last, because now, said Pilar Vallugera, the “second phase” of the process begins, which, according to ERC’s desideratum, will culminate with “the exercise of the right of self-determination”.
On behalf of the PNB, Mikel Legarda reiterated support for the amnesty to advance the “unresolved resolution of the territorial issue” and the “inconclusive anchoring” of territories with a strong national sentiment different from the Spanish and with aspirations of self-government
EH Bildu admitted that it is an “exceptional” law. But it is also “fair”, added Jon Iñarritu, for whom the amnesty “will go down in history” despite the fact that it is becoming a bit “blurred” because the focus is on “the Koldo case, the ayusosphere, the budgets or the elections”.
And the BNG joined the initiative and framed it in Galicia’s longing for recognition.
