Odón Elorza was the socialist mayor of Donostia from 1991 to 2001. I was struck by that photograph of the then mayor chasing a group of Batasunos down the street who were trying to burn two buses. Since then, I pay attention to Elorza, a politician with his own ideas who supported Pedro Sánchez and who now has doubts about the amnesty.
He says that the amnesty can reinforce political normalization and that it is not serious to accuse it of being unconstitutional, but that the PSOE would not have raised it now – there are very recent statements by Sánchez himself – if it did not need Puigdemont’s seven deputies for the investiture. There is no doubt that the amnesty as a political gesture by the State would have served to turn the definitive page on a serious and painful conflict. But amnesty as a condition (blackmail?) for the investiture generates problems.
Elorza raises them after recognizing that Sánchez’s position in the PSOE is very majority. And he says that The important thing is not so much what Junts and ERC say, but the law itself. And by definition, and contrary to contrary propaganda, there can be no amnesty without prior crimes. But saying – Sánchez confessed – that “is making a virtue of necessity” may suit ‘realpolitik’, but it does not reinforce the necessary idea of turning the page. And guaranteeing a progressive Government (of Sánchez) cannot justify that Spain remains divided between a left and a right that are mutually exclusive.
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We are going to have –unless a surprise– amnestybut doing it against the PP – which despite its rigidities is, like it or not, the first party in the State – has risks because the Democracy will not work well without minimum consensus of the two big parties. How to finally renew the judicial power? How to reform regional financing when the PP controls all the autonomous communities except Catalonia, Euskadi, Asturias and Navarra? And perhaps the investiture will be assured, but not governability because, for example, the economic differences between Sumar and the PNV are abysmal.
Although there is amnesty and investiture, the future does not seem easy at all. That’s why It is good that Elorza argues and objects which, given the circumstances, is perhaps the least bad.