Ironically, the party of Catalonia’s former regional president Carles Puigdemont voted with the conservatives and right-wing populists once morest the bill, which was intended to benefit Catalan independence activists in particular. The text was not enough for the Junts party because, in their view, it did not guarantee impunity for Puigdemont.
Rejection shows weakness on the part of the government
The law will now go back to a parliamentary committee and can be changed once more there. However, the rejection of the draft shows the extreme weakness of the government of Social Democrat Pedro Sánchez, who relies on Puigdemont’s Junts party for his majority. Sánchez formed a government in November with the help of Puigdemont’s Catalan independence supporters. In return for their support, Sánchez had promised amnesty to the independence activists.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez promised the amnesty and other concessions to the “Catalanistas” in order to secure the votes of the separatist parties Junts and ERC for his re-election in the Madrid parliament in mid-November.
The Justice Committee is expected to deal with the project once more for several weeks. The House of Commons must then vote on a new version. If the “Law for Institutional, Political and Social Normalization in Catalonia” clears this hurdle, the Senate will have to deal with it. The conservative People’s Party PP led by opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijoó has a majority of seats there. In addition to the PP and Junts, the extreme right-wing populist Vox also rejected the draft law in the lower house on Tuesday.
Puigdemont might return
The background to the controversial amnesty law is the failed attempts to secede Catalonia from Spain in 2017. The amnesty is intended to benefit in particular hundreds of activists who were persecuted by the Spanish justice system following the failed secession. Puigdemont might then return to Spain following years in exile.
The amnesty must be “complete” and must “leave no one behind, no one,” said Junts politician Miriam Nogueras, justifying the procedure during the debate in parliament. The background to Junts’ concerns is the actions of two judges who announced on Monday that their investigations would be continued for another six months.
Violent protests in Spain
The planned amnesty law is highly controversial in Spain and sparked violent protests. The PP and the right-wing extremist Vox party accuse the Social Democrat of breaking the law and maintaining power at all costs. On Sunday, 45,000 opponents of the amnesty law took to the streets in Madrid city center. This resistance will save the endangered democracy in Spain, said Feijóo. The project is a “disgrace” for the country.
The liberal Junts of separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium since the failed separation attempt in autumn 2017, and the left-wing ERC of regional president Pere Aragonès are both aiming for Catalonia to secede from Spain. But Sánchez wants to prevent this and defuse the conflict through dialogue and concessions.
Two judges are currently investigating Puigdemont and other separatists in Spain on charges of terrorism. Those affected risk being left out of the amnesty if the current version of the draft is not changed. That would inevitably endanger the stability of the left-wing government.
