The negotiations between the Government of Pedro Sánchez and Junts have been reduced to the minimum expression after the collision on Tuesday, when the Socialists refused to touch even one more comma of the Amnesty law and Junts voted against the text The Spanish Executive is working in several ways to try to convince Carles Puigdemont to reconsider his position and approve the Amnesty law as drafted. Among these formulas, a modification of the Criminal Procedure Law (LECrim) that would affect the periods of judicial investigation is gaining strength. This would limit the movements of Manuel García-Castellón, the judge who is threatening the approval of the amnesty with a terrorism investigation against the former president of the Generalitat and other pro-independence leaders.
The change in the LECrim gains strength, while another of the options put on the table, that of modifying the Penal Code and, specifically, the classification of terrorism, loses it, as it is more difficult to justify politically. These routes have been proposed to Junts, but no negotiations have been entered into and it is possible that other solutions may emerge during the course of the talks. The central government wants to take advantage of these weeks, when the focus is on the Galician elections, to advance an agreement that allows the amnesty to be approved without further changes, something it considers fundamental for three reasons: the main one, because it is convinced that the drafting current is impeccable and guarantees its constitutionality. Secondly, because the PSOE cannot afford so many contortions and changes of opinion. And, finally, because a new concession to Junts would increase the discomfort of another essential partner, ERC.
The change being studied in the LECrim would affect article 324, which regulates the extensions of the investigation periods of judicial cases. Now, in accordance with a reform approved in 2020, judges have twelve months to investigate a case, but they can, ex officio or at the request of the parties, add successive extensions of six months. It would be a matter of returning to the previous situation, that is to say, to the reform made in 2015, when the PP governed, which gave the fiscal ministry a more decisive role, since the extension would be dictated at the behest of that body due to circumstances that arose during the investigation.
In the case that concerns Junts, the judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón, after five years since he opened the case, has just given himself another six months to investigate Tsunami Democràtic, organizing platform of the protests that took place in October of 2019 in Catalonia as a response to the judgment of the trial. The judge is investigating Puigdemont and other leaders for an alleged crime of terrorism as the heads of Tsunami. With the legal changes being studied by the Spanish Government, the judge would no longer be able to prolong the investigation, because the prosecutor would have to ask for it, and he is opposed to classifying the events as terrorism.
The possibility of changing the Penal Code has also been on the table. The crime of terrorism in Spain has ended up encompassing very broad cases due to the historical need to provide tools against this scourge. Therefore, it includes any serious crime that aims to “subvert the constitutional order, seriously destabilize the functioning of institutions, seriously disrupt public peace or cause a state of terror in the population or in a part of the population”. With this statement, it would be easy for García-Castellón to pass off the Tsunami protests as terrorism. However, Spanish legislation has also adopted a 2017 European directive that determines that, for a terrorist group to exist, there must be a “structured” organization “established for a certain period of time”, i.e. , “not formed fortuitously for the immediate commission of a crime”. And in principle, Tsunami acted punctually as a reaction to the judgment of the process.
But amending the Penal Code on a delicate point such as terrorism could be counterproductive. The Central Government, meanwhile, insists before public opinion to disassociate the process from terrorism, as Sánchez did from Brussels in a very measured statement addressed to Junts: “As everyone knows, independence is not terrorism. it is not With this Amnesty Bill I am convinced, and this is how the courts will conclude, that all Catalan independence activists will be granted amnesty, because they are not terrorists”. A message that was well received by Puigdemont’s party.
