2024-01-30 12:48:01
MADRID (AP) — The lower house of Spain’s parliament is set to debate and vote on a controversial amnesty law that aims to eliminate the legal problems of hundreds of people who participated in the failed 2017 Catalan independence attempt.
Socialist President Pedro Sánchez agreed to introduce the bill in exchange for parliamentary support from two small Catalan separatist parties, allowing him to form a new minority government late last year.
The project could pave the way for the return of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, head of one of the separatist parties, who fled to Belgium after leading the secessionist attempt in 2017 and was declared a fugitive by Spanish justice.
A crucial aspect is whether Puigdemont’s party will manage to include clauses that guarantee him immunity from any legal accusation if he returns. If that is not possible, I could vote against the project.
Puigdemont and Catalan independence are anathema to many Spaniards, and the amnesty project has drawn the ire of conservative and far-right parties, which represent around half the population. Many in the judiciary and the police are also opposed, as are influential figures in Sánchez’s party.
Opposition parties have held seven large demonstrations against the amnesty in recent months.
Even if the law is approved on Tuesday, it must still overcome the obstacle of the Senate, where the right-wing opposition, the Popular Party, has an absolute majority and has promised to do everything possible to stop it in the upper house and in the courts.
Sánchez acknowledges that, if he had not needed the support of the Catalan separatists, he would not have agreed to the amnesty. He says that without his support, he would not have been able to form a government and the right, which won a majority of seats in 2023, could have come to power.
Approval of the law requires the vote of 176 legislators in the 350-seat chamber. Sánchez’s minority coalition has 147 seats, but in principle it has the support of 30 other deputies.
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