All the information about the amnesty law in this EL PERIÓDICO special.
After 10:30 p.m., after more than seven hours of debates, Congress has accepted the proposed amnesty law for processing. The deputies of PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Junts, EH Bildu, PNV, Podemos and BNG have been standing up, as they were called, to support their commitment to the grace measure. Total, 178 if it is. An absolute majority that contrasts with the division and the harsh debate that took place this Tuesday in the plenary session, the first of the legislature and in which ERC and Junts have almost given up. amnesty amortized and they have already pointed out a future referendum on the independence of Catalonia.
Before a chamber in which the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, was not present, traveling to Strasbourg to take stock of the spanish presidency of the European Union, but a large representation of ministers, the PSOE spokesperson, Patxi Lopezhas said of the amnesty that it is “exceptionalbut it is not unconstitutional”, which “is not asking for forgiveness or forgiving”, but rather “drawing conclusions to solve problems”, which “has many more guarantees” and what is “more transparent and democratic“than pardons, because these depend only on the will of the Executive, while this law to exonerate the causes of the ‘procés’ “goes through the open debate with light and stenographers” of Congress.
“You play to spread fear, we want to sow hope,” he concluded. Her words have not convinced even Alberto Núñez Feijóo nor to Santiago Abascal. Nor to the CC representative or the UPN representative. The leader of the PP has accused Sánchez of granting the amnesty to “avoid political alternation”, despite the fact that he has never had the necessary support to reach Moncloa, and has announced that if the PSOE does not offer information he will promote a commission of investigation in the Senate, where it has an absolute majority, on the verifiers that Sánchez has accepted with Junts and ERC, separately. The PP has forced the vote to be by call, something unusual, so that the socialist deputies could portray themselves. “The more they threaten us, the more convinced we are,” López responded.
Abascal, far from rectifying his controversial words about “hanging Sánchez by the feet”, has insisted that the people will end up getting tired and has wished the Chief Executive a fair trial: “You can be sure that we We are not going to grant them any amnesty“.
The criticism from the right has not been reflected on the street this Tuesday. Before Congress there was not a single soul to protest. In front of the PSOE headquarters, on Ferraz Street in Madrid, a couple of hundred are still resisting.
The next step
The rest of the chamber, the formations on which the country’s governance rests, have defended the bill. Both his “convenience” as their “constitutional fit“. “It does not put at risk either the rule of law or the separation of powers or democracy or fundamental rights,” said the PNV deputy. Mikel Legarda. “It ends an injustice, opens the way to dialogue and negotiation and with it the democratization of the State will be more recognized,” stressed the EH Bildu parliamentarian, Jon Iñárritu.
However, all eyes were on ERC and Junts, and the tone of their interventions. The spokesman for the Republicans, Gabriel Rufianhas assured that the bill “may be liked very little, a lot or average”, but that it will be a law approved by the “overwhelmingly” of Congress. For his part, the post-convergent deputy Josep Maria Cervera He has claimed that the amnesty has come thanks to the weight of his training – “that is the virtue of Junts”, he said – and that it will serve to repair “an injustice“, that of the courts “that have prioritized the unity of the country, abusing criminal law to punish dissent.” These same courts, he said, will benefit from the law because they will be freed from submitting to the “scrutiny of European courts“about ‘lawfare’.
However, both parliamentarians have considered the amnesty approved, despite the fact that there are still months of debate and processing, and have set their sights on the next step they want to take. “The next question is, in Catalonia we are prepared and prepared to win or to lose a referendum. And you?” Rufián asked. Cervera, for his part, asserted that the amnesty opens the negotiation with the PSOE “from you to you” to decide the future of Catalonia: “For Junts it can only be that of a Catalonia free”.
Procedures and investigation
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In the coming weeks, the amnesty will have to face, first, the debate on the amendments to the entirety and, then, its passage through the Justice Commission, where ERC intends to introduce some modification, despite the fact that the PSOE is reticent. Only then will the law return to the plenary session to be approved and sent to the Senate. In the Upper House, the PP may delay the processing for up to two months before vetoing the rule. Congress must, then, resort to a new absolute majority to lift that veto and give final approval to the amnesty. This is expected for mid to late April.
Meanwhile, the Lower House will be able to launch the three investigative commissions that it approved this Tuesday, also as payment to the independence groups: one on the ‘Operation Catalonia‘, where Junts seeks to clarify whether there has been ‘lawfare’ in Spain against the Catalan independence movement; another about the attacks of August 17 2017 on the Rambla in Barcelona; and another registered by ERC, EH Bildu and BNG about espionage with the program Pegasus.