The amnesty law, the key to sustaining the legislature, finally went ahead this Thursday in Congress without the euphoria that usually accompanies these occasions in the ranks of the Government.
The great ovations with which approvals of the Budgets or laws of special relevance are usually received, this time turned into timid applause from Pedro Sánchez - who joined the session just to vote -, the only four ministers present and the rest of the benches of the formations that support the Government.
Only the independentists gave free rein to their enthusiasm when the president, Francina Armengol, reported the expected result: 178 votes in favor of PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Junts, EH Bildu, PNV, Podemos, BNG and the now ex-socialist José Luis Ábalos and 172 against PP, Vox, Canarian Coalition and UPN.
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Congress approves the amnesty law by 178 votes in favor and 172 against
The significance of the highly controversial law on the political calendar had been reduced the day before, with the call for regional elections in Catalonia for next May 12.
For now, the Government has already been forced to give up its plan to pave the way for new Budgets with the amnesty.
And the horizon of the legislature, which was outlined so clearly if the law passed, has become a little more nebulous while awaiting the verdict of the Catalan polls.
That is why the only signs of joy were manifested in the ERC bench, facing the guest gallery where the leader of their party, Oriol Junqueras, was.
“Today the parliamentary gymkhana to approve this law is finally over,” exclaimed, at the beginning of the debate, Podemos deputy Martina Velarde.
The three months of processing, despite the emergency route chosen, have effectively been a gymkhana.
To the point that the law was rejected in the first instance in plenary session on January 30 after Junts retracted the support it had provided in committee and forced a new wording on the scope of the measure with respect to terrorism crimes.
But the obstacle course is far from over.
First, it will suffer the attacks of the PP in the Senate – the Junts deputy Josep Maria Cervera disqualified that Chamber as a “quagmire” – where the absolute majority of the opposition will delay the process for two months before returning it to Congress.
And everyone assumes that many judges will try to challenge it with questions of unconstitutionality or consultations with European justice.
This was highlighted by the ERC spokesperson herself in the debate, Pilar Vallugera, although at the same time she advocated doing everything possible so that its application is “immediate” to the hundreds of people who hope to benefit from it.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in the Congress of Deputies before the plenary session. Álvaro García
The electoral call in Catalonia inevitably crept into the debate.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who defended the PP's position in person, started as if he were already campaigning.
He alluded to the May 12 meeting and promised that, unlike the PSC, his party “is not going to ask the constitutionalists for the vote and then give it to the independentistas.”
Aina Vidal, deputy spokesperson for Sumar and member of the commons, criticized those who defend the project for a casino complex in Tarragona, whose rejection was the reason given by her party for not supporting the Catalan Budgets and hastening the elections.
Cervera, from Junts, took the opportunity to attack the leader and candidate of the Catalan socialists, Salvador Illa, by emphasizing that the PSOE has accepted the law "out of necessity, not out of conviction."
On the other hand, the two pro-independence parties this time avoided the mutual reproaches that had been exchanged last week when the Justice Commission approved the text.
Cervera vindicated Junts' role in forcing changes in the law even at the cost of delaying approval, but at the same time he dedicated recognition to the dialogue with ERC.
And in an almost unusual gesture on the part of this last formation, Vallugera began by thanking the tone of the Junts representative's words.
The groups that support the Government defended that the approval of the law marks the end of the conflict that opened in 2017 and the subsequent judicial action against the leaders of the
process.
“We have rolled up our sleeves to fix your failure, what you ruined,” said socialist spokesperson Patxi López, addressing the PP, who proclaimed the “closing of a cycle.”
“We buried the 'go for them',” said Enrique Santiago, from Sumar, adding that now the Government “will be able to focus on what really matters: improving people's lives.”
But the independentists do not consider anything closed and announced their next battle: the referendum.
“We will not stop until we exercise the right to self-determination,” stated Vallugera, with the commitment to pursue it in a “peaceful, dialogue-based and democratic” manner.
And that's where Feijóo attacked to assume that Sánchez will also give in on this point.
Mikel Legarda, of the PNV, supported the thesis of the “closing of a traumatic political cycle” after the “obsessive persecution” against the protagonists of what, in his opinion, represented “a constitutional crisis, not a coup d'état.”
Basque and Galician nationalists agreed that the political significance of the amnesty goes beyond Catalonia.
Jon Iñarritu, from EH Bildu, and Néstor Rego, from the BNG, interpreted that the PSOE has made a gesture that represents recognition of “the nations of the Spanish State” since their demands must “be removed from the courts.”
On the rejection front, the loudest voice was, of course, that of Vox.
Santiago Abascal arrived with a revelation: Sánchez “has resigned from the presidency of the Government” and those who now rule in Spain are Carles Puigdemont and Mohamed VI of Morocco.
After accusing Feijóo of being lukewarm in the face of an Executive supported by a “gang of outlaws,” he summarized his aspirations: “Let criminals live behind bars and not sit on a bench.”
The Canarian Coalition once again fell out of the majority that supported Sánchez's investiture, whose representative, Cristina Valido, argued that the law lacks "social consensus" and regretted the renunciation of new Budgets that her party wanted to negotiate.
In line with the rest of the right, Alberto Catalán, from UPN, cried out against the “villainy that humiliates the Spanish.”
Feijóo is determined to predict the fall of the Government, while linking the amnesty with the corruption of the
Koldo case
.
Addressing a Sánchez who was absent at that moment, he asserted: “You depend on what Mr. Puigdemont says and what Mr. Ábalos does.”
And he deduced: “There is not going to be a legislature, this is agony.”
Patxi López had previously asked him to abandon the “apocalyptic sophistications” and described his strategy like this: “The worse for the country, the better for the PP.”
The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras (in the center), along with other ERC deputies, applaud after the amnesty law was approved, in a plenary session, in the Congress of Deputies, this Thursday. Manu Fernández (AP/ LaPresse )
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