The European socialists take to Brussels the turn of Feijóo's PP on pardoning the independence movement

The European socialists counterattack with the same coin: after months of complaints from the PP and its European family, the European People's Party (EPP), in Brussels over the amnesty law, the PSOE is now bringing before some of the main officials of the institutions Europeans, including the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, the PP's turn on pardoning the independence movement.

The socialists affirm that the PP is “in line” with the negotiating thesis of the Government of Pedro Sánchez.

The president of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group of the European Parliament, Iratxe García, and the president of the Spanish socialist delegation, Javier Moreno, sent a letter this Thursday denouncing that the political position of the PP regarding pardons and the law of amnesty “is based on accusations that they themselves consider false and on values ​​that they do not respect when negotiating.”

“The change in position of the Popular Party and its president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, open to considering a conditional pardon for former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in a 'reconciliation' plan for Catalonia” is “in line with the amnesty law proposed by the PSOE ", they state in the letter.

This is accompanied by more than a dozen links to information about the change in position of Alberto Núñez Feijóo's PP published by various Spanish media this week, including EL PAÍS.

The letter has been sent to the two officials of the European Executive who have most closely followed the negotiation process for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and the evolution of the amnesty law, on which they could comment once it is approved: the vice president of Values ​​and Transparency of the European Commission, Vera Jourová, and the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.

The senders also include the president of the Commission on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Juan Fernando López Aguilar;

the Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group of the European Parliament and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.

A high-ranking popular source explained last Friday to a group of media, including EL PAÍS, that the PP “analyzed 24 hours” the possibility of an amnesty, when it learned that this was Junts' demand in the contacts between both parties last August, but ruled it out as unconstitutional.

The revelation occurred a day after Puigdemont veiledly threatened the PP with pulling the rug out from under his private conversations last August to establish the Congressional Board.

“Everything will be known,” the former Catalan president, who has been on the run in Brussels since 2017, said in an open letter.

The PP's revelation immediately after the former president's letter left at least two conclusions.

One: unlike what the PP leadership has explained in the last hours to put out the fire, in the contacts with Junts they talked about the amnesty.

And two: unlike what Feijóo has expressed in recent months, the PP examined, albeit for a few hours, the possibility of an amnesty for the leaders of Junts and ERC, despite the fact that it later went so far as to propose the illegalization of those games.

Brussels has been one of the main battlefields of the PP to try to derail the amnesty law, aware that the evolution of regulations was closely followed by the European Commission: Commissioner Reynders requested in November by letter to the Spanish Government detailed data to to be able to “carry out an analysis based on all the relevant elements”, although since then both he and Vice President Jourová have stressed that they will only speak out once the regulations are approved.

The socialists also take the issue of amnesty to the European institutions with this new movement.

In its battle in the European institutions, the PP has had an exceptional ally: the president of the EPP, the German Manfred Weber, who has repeatedly attacked the amnesty law.

The climax took place during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on December 13, in which Pedro Sánchez was supposed to speak about the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU, but which ended up being a bitter debate on the amnesty law in the that Weber accused the President of the Government of lying to the Spanish people.

“You cannot promise that you will not give an amnesty three days before the elections and then grant it.

You cannot say that it is not constitutional and then that it is,” said Weber, assuming the PP line that has now been questioned by the party leadership itself.

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