The syndrome of the ‘law of only yes means yes’ hangs over the promoters of amnesty of the ‘procés’. The norm that will be approved on Tuesday in Congress will begin its veritable rosary of comings, goings and delays on Wednesday. A couple of months in the Senate before being rejected, back to the lower house to lift the veto and from there to the ring of justice. Not without some stumbles, the PSOE had managed to put together a story to justify its risky bet under two banners: reconciliation between Catalans and that of ‘make a virtue of necessity‘. But this last week, the socialists have had their plot choked off by the pressure of their fellow legislators and the decisions of the justice system (or part of it), which makes the outcome of the amnesty even more unpredictable. And all just a few days before the first electoral campaign of the year.
When the norm reached Congress, four professors of constitutional, criminal and procedural law examined the text for EL PERIÓDICO and came to the conclusion that, in general terms, it was robust enough to overcome the filter of the constitutional Court, although they also warned that it could lead to disparate sentences because its legal argument is influenced by the political need of the PSOE to maintain itself in the Government. This imperative need has forced the socialists this week to forcefully force an amendment that the same jurists warn could ruin the norm.
The Moncloa story becomes complicated: the minister Felix Bolaños has had to remember that nothing that happened in Catalonia in 2017 can be compared to ETA or to jihadism given how delicate it is to leave in writing that there would be a terrorism that violates human rights and another that does not violate them. The concessions before ERC and Junts have crystallized this time in an amendment that more than one judge or court could cling to to justify that it is a law tailored to Carles Puigdemont. Of course, the promoters of the norm can also allege that ‘ad hoc’ legislation is needed in the face of the suspicious determination of a sector of the justice system to strike down the grace measure. In any case, the Government has to take extreme pirouettes because its partners make it clear that it is walking on a wire.
The adjustments agreed upon by PSOE, ERC and Junts have eliminated from the law an element that could reduce its protection from justice. The original text excluded from the amnesty those convicted of terrorism with “final sentence”, something that was not going to occur before the approval of the norm in either of the two cases for this crime. The case of the CDR There is still no trial date in the first instance and the investigation of the Democratic Tsunami It is in incipient instruction. Now a different requirement is established and that is that acts of terrorism will be excluded “as long as, manifestly and with direct intention, have caused serious human rights violations“, which would leave out the death of the French tourist due to a heart attack during the blockade of El Prat airport.
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The reason for this change is part of the cat and mouse game that the Government and its partners, on the one hand, and the judge have turned the amnesty law into. Manuel García-Castellón, for the other. This magistrate had been conducting the Tsunami investigation for four years and he did not realize that Puigdemont and Marta Rovira They were in trouble until the socialist’s trips to Brussels began Santos Cerdan. Since then, he has seen terrorism where neither investigators nor the prosecution see it, without identifying any specific aggressor and without documentary evidence of incitement to violence. He has even detected a “homicidal mood” on the defunct platform and a plan “in mind” to act during a visit of the King to Barcelona.
In addition to the amnesty, the other boomerang that can turn against the Government is spying on the independence movement with Pegasus, following the documentation declassified by the Council of Ministers itself. Until now it was known that the CNI had tapped the phone of Pere Aragones when he was vice president of the Government with judicial authorization. But now it is known that the intelligence services justified this request in that the current president directed the actions of the CDR from “clandestinity.” What role the PSOE Government has played in all this remains uncertain. Bolaños said on Friday that the Socialist Executive was neither aware nor had authorized these operations because they were prior to the arrival of Pedro Sanchez to Moncloa. The authorization is previous, but the investigations were maintained with the PSOE in power, so, as established by law, the CNI informed him of the evolution of the investigations while negotiating with ERC during his first term. The judicial investigation continues and predicts new headaches for the Government.