Spanish Senate vetoes amnesty law that could be definitively approved by Congress

On Tuesday, the Spanish Senate vetoed the controversial amnesty law for those convicted, prosecuted and investigated in connection with the illegal attempt at independence of the region of Catalonia, which could be definitively approved by Congress.

The upper house thus rejected, with an absolute majority of the conservative opposition of the Popular Party (PP) and the extreme right of Vox (149 votes), the legislative proposal, promoted by the Socialist Party (PSOE), which heads the nation’s government, and also supported by small left-wing parties and Basque and Catalan nationalists and independentists (113 votes), according to EFE.

However, Congress already approved the law last March and sent it to the Senate to continue the parliamentary process, and now it will return to the lower house for a decision on the veto.

The majority in Congress formed by the left-wing coalition government and the nationalist and pro-independence forces is expected to lift the veto and the law will come into force within a few weeks. The interpretation and application of the law will be up to the judges.

The entry into force of the ban would bring closer the possible return to Spain of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who fled in 2017 to avoid action by Spanish justice for his role in the illegal Catalan independence process of that year.

Now, elected as a deputy in last Sunday’s regional elections, he aspires to be Catalan president again, although his party (Junts) came in second with 35 deputies, behind the socialists, with 42, in a Catalan chamber of 135.