Unexpectedly, what until a few weeks ago appeared to be the Government’s main weak point, the amnesty law, is now a framework with more nuances in the political battle. The measure of grace for those accused of process pro-independence arouses the rejection of broad sectors of society and the frontal opposition of the PP, but sources from this party recognize that the scenario has changed: if before the Government of Pedro Sánchez wanted to rush through the debate on the law, now they believe that you are even interested in lengthening it.
Because? Especially since the Koldo case, a stain of alleged corruption on the file of the progressive Executive that wears him down more than the measure of grace, as interpreted by the PP. But also because the Popular Party’s strategy once morest the amnesty has had to adapt to some changes: first, the controversial revelation from a high-ranking PP source that the party would be willing to pursue a policy of “reconciliation” in Catalonia; and then, the leak of the Venice Commission’s draft opinion on the amnesty law, which, although it does not endorse it in the terms claimed by the Government, does not categorically censor it as the popular people expected. In any case, Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party does not plan to release the amnesty grip: the leadership anticipates two months of battle in the processing of the law in the Senate and is preparing to return to the streets.
The Popular Party does not plan to modulate its strategy regarding the amnesty, according to sources from Feijóo’s leadership. This Saturday, the party approved a declaration, agreed upon in a meeting of the leader with the regional presidents in Córdoba, in which it states that “the Government’s attempt, through the amnesty, to deactivate one of the powers of the State, in this “In the judicial case, it is an exercise of authoritarianism incompatible with a democratic system.”
Once the law leaves Congress, expected next week, it will begin its journey in the Senate, which plans to qualify it at the Board meeting on Tuesday the 19th. The PP reformed the regulations to lengthen its processing, so it will be two months of noise. once morest the law, with a battery of reports and appearances, the majority constitutionalists critical of the norm, and with the advantage for the conservatives that they have control of the Upper House by their absolute majority. “The amnesty has lowered its severity a notch because the Koldo case It does more damage to the Government, but we are going to go all out in the Senate. The advantage of doing it in the institution is that it allows you to go very strong without looking like a radical. There is a very relevant fact for all this: Vox is missing because we are eating it,” explains a PP leader familiar with the strategy in the upper house.
The PP expects up to five reports that it trusts will be favorable to its interests. The first is twofold, from the Senate lawyers, appointed at his proposal, who will rule both on the opportunity to process the law – the PP asked if there would be an option not to process it, as Vox requests – and on the substance. The popular ones also give a lot of importance to the General Council of the Judiciary, where the conservative members – with their mandate having expired five years ago – have a majority. The party will also insist that the Fiscal Council prepare a third report, although so far the attorney general has rejected it because he believes that it would mean “altering” the functioning of the institutions. And, finally, there is the final opinion of the Venice Commission, which is expected to be known on the 15th and which the PP hopes will be “more forceful” than the first known draft.
Feijóo had been warned by some PP leaders that it might be a mistake to request a report from the Venice Commission (a consultative body of the Council of Europe) expecting a blow to the amnesty law, because that body is made up of jurists from different countries, with different political sensitivities, and might have a different vision from that of the PP. This is how it happened: the draft opinion, although it points out that the law has caused a deep division in Spanish society and censorship that is processed by emergency procedure, also demolishes some PP arguments once morest the law, such as which maintained that it breaks the separation of powers and equality before the law. “If the real and effective equality of citizens and the separation of powers falters, that country will be left without a Constitution,” said Feijóo in January, while the jurists of Venice consider that “there is no problem” regarding the separation of powers. powers as long as the decision of which specific individuals will benefit from the amnesty is in the hands of the competent judge, something provided for in the bill.
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But in addition to the content, the strategy matters, and the PP recognizes that the Government has managed to place in public opinion that the Commission’s report represents a government victory. The popular ones maintain that the Executive has “manipulated” the draft opinion and that there has been a clear “overacting” of Minister Félix Bolaños, but they also admit that the report left them somewhat confused because “it gives one of lime and another of sand.” The PP is now moving to try to obtain a final ruling more critical of the law. The Senate Board has entrusted the senior lawyer with a brief of allegations to present before the Commission, and the president of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, will attend the debate of the advisory body next week to participate in the discussion.
The Socialists will use as a bullet in the upcoming debate in the Senate the main setback of the Popular Party in the political battle of the amnesty: the revelation, by a high source of the PP in the middle of the Galician campaign, that the party would be open to study a conditional pardon for Carles Puigdemont and that he analyzed the amnesty for 24 hours before ruling it out. “When he got into that garden it was because he really thought regarding it. The PP would have reached an agreement with the independentistas if it were not for Vox. in that food off the record, [el PP] “He came to accept that they would also have used amnesty as a concept,” insists the socialist spokesperson in the Senate, Juan Espadas.
Feijóo has instead adopted the strategy of drawing a thick veil over that revelation in the Galician campaign and has resumed direct criticism of the law. This week, from the European PP congress in Bucharest, the leader of the PP has criticized that “a European Government is going to leave very serious crimes once morest the heart of the EU unpunished. Including crimes of terrorism, embezzlement and declaration of independence of a part of a Member State.” In the PP they consider that the leader has no other possibility than to maintain the frontal speech once morest the amnesty, without modulating it. “Feijóo will act as if nothing happened. He cannot afford anything else,” estimates one leader. “If we had lost the elections in Galicia, that revelation would have been very important, but once that did not happen, it does not exist,” adds a source from the popular leadership.
That the PP increases the piston is also demonstrated by the fact that it is preparing to continue agitating in the streets once morest the grace measure. “The PP, sooner or later, will return to the streets,” they warn in the popular leadership. This Saturday, the popular joined the demonstration called in Madrid by associations linked to the right, but they plan to organize their own protest once more. In recent months, the PP has taken to the streets half a dozen times once morest the amnesty.
Feijóo’s leadership believes that low social support is a weak point of the amnesty. Another, very important one, are the judges. The popular ones are aware that the conservative sectors of justice have shown signs of their rejection of the grace measure and their discomfort with the Government. Last November, hundreds of judges demonstrated in front of the courts once morest the rule. And they are the ones who will have to apply the amnesty, which leaves it up to them to decide how and who it will benefit.
The PP will also continue to insist on the European strategy by trying to get the community institutions involved once morest the Spanish amnesty, although the words of Isabel Díaz Ayuso at the EPP congress this week, urging her colleagues to abandon the “compatreo” with Pedro Sánchez , reveal a certain impotence of the popular ones. In her speech to the party as soon as she was re-elected as the main candidate to lead the European Commission, Úrsula Von der Leyen ignored this issue and attacked the extreme right and the extreme left.
And, without releasing the grip of the amnesty, the PP will in turn maintain the pressure for the Koldo case. The processing of the rule in the Senate will begin at the same time as the investigation commission that the Popular Party has launched in the Upper House on the corruption case that affects the progressive Government. The conservative party does not let up: fire at will at least until the European elections in June.
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