The PSOE, the main party of the Spanish coalition government chaired by Pedro Sánchez, announced this Wednesday an agreement with the Catalan independence forces Junts and ERC
to process an amnesty law
that covers "all people" linked to the separatist process in Catalonia ( northeast of Spain).
The future amnesty law should benefit separatists prosecuted for their participation in the failed secession of Catalonia in 2017.
The three parties announced this Wednesday an agreement on the amnesty law which, according to their defense, is
"fully in accordance with the Constitution
, European law and jurisprudence and the best European and international standards."
Almost four months after the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government, this agreement gives the leader of the Spanish socialists the key
to be able to approve the budgets and to move the legislature forward.
In a joint statement, PSOE, Junts and ERC point out that they have agreed on a transactional amendment based on the amendments that were still alive, but they do not explain its content, although Junts sources specified that the new text will include "
the crimes of terrorism and treason
adapted to European standards, and not to the Spanish Penal Code".
The details of the agreement will be announced tomorrow, Thursday before the meeting of the Congressional Justice Commission,
which must approve the opinion of the law.
The norm will thus foreseeably go to the plenary session of Congress next week before being sent to the Senate, where it will no longer be processed by the emergency procedure, which will allow the Popular Party (PP), the main opposition party, to
delay its approval until a maximum of two months
, since the conservative formation controls the Upper House with an absolute majority.
PSOE, ERC and Junts emphasize that they have reached their agreement after days of joint work, but they do not reveal the main unknown:
which crimes will be excluded from the amnesty.
The European parliamentarian and Catalan leader, Carles Puigdemont.
Photo EFE
All eyes are on the situation of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, leader of Junts, after the Supreme Court decided last week to
open a criminal case against him for his alleged leadership
of the organization Tsunami Democràtic and considered that the facts fit in a crime of terrorism.
The Popular Party, against
The conservative PP harshly attacked the agreement reached and announced that
it will fight it "in the institutions and in the courts"
and sees it as proof that the PSOE, in addition to "economic corruption", resorts to "political corruption" to continue in power.
As soon as the agreement was known, sources from the Popular Party emphasized in a statement that the pact with the parties "that want to dismember the country" is "evidence that the president of the Spanish Government accepts that during a specific period of time in Catalonia
There were no laws to comply with
and there are no sentences to apply.
What's more, the popular ones assure that in this way "Spain apologizes to the independence movement by order of Pedro Sánchez" and announce that
they will not accept this "humiliation"
and that for this they will fight the agreement in the institutions and the courts.
They also emphasize that in the PSOE there are "two types of corruption": that generated by money and that produced "by power" and that in recent days "socialism is stained in both directions."
"Through economic corruption some became rich; through
political corruption some remain powerful
," they say.
For his part, the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, of ERC, celebrated the "necessary agreement" because
"with the amnesty democracy wins
," he stated in X.
"It is a crucial and solid law. A necessary agreement that I greatly celebrate, especially for all those who today feel a little more relieved. There is still a way to go, and it will not be easy, but today we are closer to leaving repression behind. With amnesty wins democracy," he said.
Source: EFE and AFP
P.B.