“Catalan independence is not terrorism”, said Pedro Sánchez forcefully, yesterday from Brussels, at the end of the European Council meeting.
A resounding statement by the President of the Spanish Government, which was very well received by Junts per Catalunya and which opens the door to get back on track with the processing of the Amnesty law, which was derailed on Tuesday after Carles Puigdemont’s formation voted for it against the plenum of the Congress of Deputies to try to guarantee the criminal oblivion for all those indicted by the process following the new accusations of terrorism brought by the judge Manuel García-Castellón.
Sources close to the negotiation point to La Vanguardia that the Spanish Government and Junts are already exploring new ways to unblock the Amnesty law. The firm statement that Sánchez made yesterday would fit into this new framework. The solution to the disagreement between the socialists and the post-convergents could ask that the proposal of the Amnesty law keep the current wording, even stretching with some technical incorporation that is agreed upon in the negotiation that is now reopening in the Justice Committee of the Congress .
And that a reform of the Penal Code relating to the crimes of terrorism be tackled next, among other legislative revisions. A proposal that was already defended by Sumar’s negotiator, Jaume Asens, and that could unblock the processing and subsequent approval of a key rule for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and for the course of the legislature that has just begun.
“As everyone knows, Catalan independence is not terrorism”, underlined Sánchez yesterday, responding to the judgment of judge García-Castellón and the political offensive deployed by the right, to defend the wording of the Amnesty law proposal that reached the plenum of Congress on Tuesday and which could not succeed due to the contrary vote of Junts, so that now it will try again to agree in the Justice committee.
The President of the Central Government defended that with this proposal of law in its current terms, without the changes that Junts asked to incorporate, “all the Catalan independence activists will be amnestied, because they are not terrorists”. “I am convinced of it, and in the end the courts will conclude it”, assured Sánchez.
The head of the Executive thus defended the position set by the PSOE, and assured that with the drafting of the rule “that we have right now”, and that is still in the parliamentary process of Congress, “independence, which I don’t consider terrorism, it will be amnesty”.
“Therefore, we can overcome all the legal cases and the legal consequences of the mistakes they also committed”, argued Sánchez, with reference to independence. In any case, the president called Puigdemont’s formation to the agreement: “The time has come to take the step”.
The head of the Spanish Executive assured that all the work carried out so far to articulate this law managed to endow it with three very relevant characteristics. “It is a brave law, because it is situated in the total reunion between Catalans, and also between Catalans and all of their Spanish compatriots, its main objective”, he stressed. “It is a reparative law”, he added, as the second of its qualities. “And it is a constitutional law”, he stressed.
“The fundamental objective is for it to leave Congress like this: equally demoralized, undoubtedly reparative and with the guarantees and legal security so that it can be applied”, he assured. That is to say, without it being able to be overturned by the Constitutional Court before the European instances before which it will be appealed by the right. “This is the position of the Spanish Government”, concluded the president.
Sánchez refused to analyze the negotiations with Junts in terms of who gives more or who less. “In the end we all gave in”, he acknowledged.
And now? “The key is to maintain temperance and firmness. Temperance in terms of restraint to try to reach an agreement”, he confided. “And also the firmness of knowing that everything we have progressed so far, even for this political party that has voted in favor of this Amnesty law proposal on four occasions – he indicated, referring to Together, it is rigorous and solid enough to achieve the goal we had set for ourselves, which is to finish overcoming the judicial horizon that caused the year 2017”.
“The Amnesty law is the definitive step, which has a broad consensus in the society that has most directly suffered from the territorial crisis of 2017, which is Catalan society. Whatever they vote, the majority of Catalan society is ready for this total reunion”, emphasized Sánchez. “The total normalization of Catalonia will not happen overnight, but my will to normalize the situation in Catalonia is total”, he assured.
