Madrid City Council approves PP motion against amnesty

It has been long overdue. The word amnesty has sounded for the first time in the Cibeles four and a half hours after the start of the ordinary plenary session of the Madrid City Council, with which the political course starts in the capital, after the elections and after a placid summer in the Madrid Executive. The Popular Party has presented the same motion of rejection of the Amnesty Law ―demand raised by the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to support a hypothetical investiture of Pedro Sánchez― in all Spanish municipalities, which presumably will go ahead in all those where the PP enjoys an absolute majority, as has happened in Madrid this Thursday, or governs in coalition with Vox.

"The city of Madrid has the opportunity to say yes to the Constitution, yes to coexistence, yes to tolerance, yes to equality, yes to freedom, yes to democracy, yes to the rule of law," began the mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, in a speech that barely reached three minutes and where he attacked the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for "his ambition without limits, excessive and devoid of any scruples". Restrained applause in the popular caucus. So, he has addressed the leader of the opposition, Rita Maestre, and the spokeswoman of the socialist group, Reyes Maroto. "If in this plenary I told you that you are beasts in human form, genetically inferior to the Catalans, I would get into a lawsuit, you will agree with those who called not only you, but the whole of the Spaniards."

The first reply – which has not been such – has been given by the spokesman for Vox, Javier Ortega Smith, whose party has presented several amendments to the proposal of the popular, but they have only affected two. First, that all formations with representation in Congress avoid any dialogue with parties that promote amnesty. Second: "When in the first point they say we reject any type of amnesty for any Spanish citizen, we add 'or foreigner', because it cannot happen that a foreign person in national territory can be favored precisely by that amnesty." The amendments were rejected in their entirety.

The fight for amnesty yes or amnesty no of the Madrid plenary – staged on the day of respite of the Congress after the failed first debate of investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo – has not lasted more than 15 minutes, although it has slightly raised the tone in a session, otherwise, decaffeinated and where issues such as dining scholarships have been mentioned, The felling of trees for the works on line 11, the cleaning cantons, nursery schools, environmental initiatives, street safety, bicimad or the construction of protected housing. To the proposal of the Popular Party (29 councilors) against the amnesty, Más Madrid (12 councilors) and PSOE (11) have voted against, while Vox (5) has voted in favor.

"Here Mr. Almeida brings this proposal because they have sent it to him in his party, with this ridiculous bravado that no councilor was going to be able to hide in this debate. Hide from whom? About what? Of you?", Maestre responded, to slight boos from the popular councilors and energetic applause from Más Madrid. The leader of the opposition has spoiled the mayor that the proposal is a "total anticlimax": "Your problem, gentlemen of the Popular Party, is that you have filled the mouth of Spain. Your mouth has been full of calling all the other anti-Spaniards, and when Spain has come out to vote it has said no to you and those opposite."

The Socialists have presented a counterproposal, so that "the next Government of Spain is urged to continue making dialogue, within the constitutional framework, the tool to improve coexistence between Catalans and these with the rest of Spain." The spokeswoman of the group, Reyes Maroto, has accused Almeida of making "a circus" and a "smokescreen" with the motion rejecting the amnesty, and of putting the interests of the party before the residents of Madrid. "Whenever citizens put the Popular Party in opposition, the apocalypse of the breakup of Spain begins, of the threat of equality of Spaniards, but when the Popular Party needs the nationalists to govern, it does whatever is necessary," he criticized. On October 5, this same proposal will be voted on in the Madrid Assembly.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter about Madrid.