This Thursday, November 9, the PSOE and Junts per Catalunya reached an agreement that establishes the amnesty law for independentists accused of the ‘procés’ and unblocks the investiture of Pedro Sánchez so that his party can repeat in the government. In addition to these two main points, the signed document also includes other key issues, within an agreement that will have to face rejection from the Spanish right and extreme right.
The agreement between the PSOE and Junts per Catalunya is a reality. This Thursday, the leaders of both parties signed the document, in which they refer to the pact as a “historic agreement” and which will be the key to being able to form a Government in Spain and carry out the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, who is scheduled for the next few days.
“The political agreement and the amnesty law have been closed (…) It is time to grant Catalan society a new horizon,” said Santos Cerdán, secretary of organization and representative of the PSOE in the negotiation.
We have reached an agreement with JxCat for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government.
A historic opportunity to resolve a conflict that can and should only be resolved through politics. For the well-being of citizens and overcoming problems. pic.twitter.com/ftqvMQ3Cbj
— Santos Cerdán León (@santicl) November 9, 2023
The independence supporters have insisted for years on an amnesty that includes complete forgiveness and erases all crimes of those convicted and investigated for the celebration of the 2017 independence referendum, not authorized by the Government.
And with this pact there is a bilateral benefit: the independentists have achieved the amnesty law that they have been asking for for six years and, in exchange, the PSOE has obtained the necessary support to be able to start a new government. Everything, despite their “divergent positions”, as noted in the four page documents.
Below are the keys to the document and the reactions expected after its signing.
The amnesty: the starting point and axis of the pact
“This pact opens an unprecedented stage,” said Carles Puigdemont, former president of Catalonia, from Brussels, where he has been in exile since 2017.
And, since the unilateral declaration of independence of Catalonia in 2017, the dialogue between the central government and the Catalan independence government seemed like a hermetically closed door. Something that, with this agreement, seems to have changed.
The document, published for the first time by the Catalan newspaper ‘La Vanguardia’points out the main objective of the pact: the commitment of both parties to “open a new stage and contribute to resolving the historical conflict over the political future of Catalonia.”
“The will and the opportunity is real,” Cerdán said in a press conference from Brussels.
This part of the agreement – which would be the policy – establishes the amnesty law, key in this entire process to open this avenue of “dialogue” between the national government and the Catalan independentists.
A point that has had comings and goings throughout the negotiation process for various reasons. The first, the scope of the amnesty. Junts has demanded throughout the process that it be “without names”, that is, that it cover all those related – directly or indirectly – to the Catalan process for independence or ‘procés’ between 2012 and 2023. And, finally , so it has been established.
Furthermore, the Catalan side has emphasized that this pact and, above all, the conflict through which it was reached need to be understood from a “historical perspective.” With an explicit reference to the statute of autonomy – basic institutional norm in the Spanish autonomous communities – approved by the Catalan Cortes in 2010but rejected by the then central government of the PP and suspended after the appeal that the party presented to the Constitutional Court.
“The conflict that we want to resolve is not limited to 2017,” Puigdemont said in this regard this Thursday.
“That ruling made Catalonia the only autonomous community that does not have a statute of autonomy entirely voted on by its citizens (…) A statute where (Catalan) linguistic, cultural and institutional issues have played a prominent role,” the document reads.
In addition to the judicial exculpation of all those prosecuted for the ‘procés’, the political part of the agreement also includes a dialogue table between parties with an international mediator. Something that was part of Puigdemont’s demands.
In this sense, “full political, institutional and social normality” is sought for the future of Catalonia and in its relations with the central Executive.
International mediation against “mutual distrust”
The discrepancies between the two political formations are a reality. Without going any further, the same text of the agreement indicates that Junts recognizes the legitimacy of the referendum of October 1, 2017. But the PSOE does not.
In this regard, the agreed dialogue table is fundamental for negotiations and treatment of “dissents” during the legislature. And, to this end, both parties have established an international mechanism to “accompany, verify and monitor” all negotiation processes. A necessary point to combat what the same document defines as “recognized mutual mistrust.”
Another key point of the agreement is the self-government of the region or, as the pact defines, the “national recognition of Catalonia.”
Junts plans to use this international negotiating table to request the holding of another independence referendum in Catalonia, this time protected by the Constitution—by article 92—. But the PSOE has already announced that this is not a point on which it plans to give in.
In return, the Socialist Party proposes the “broad development of the 2006 Statute” with respect for the institutions of self-government and the Catalan “institutional, cultural and linguistic” uniqueness.
The independentists also want full management of tax collection in Catalonia. The PSOE, for its part, limits itself to offering policies that “allow the financial autonomy of the Generalitat.”
In addition, both parties have established investigative commissions into the alleged “lawfare”—political persecution—that Puigdemont has denounced since he went into exile in Brussels.
The PSOE insists that this pact is not an investiture agreement, but rather a legislative agreement – of course, subject to “the progress and compliance” of the mutual agreements. All to be able to guarantee the stability of the government during his four years in office. And, for analysts, this is a big turn for Junts’ internal politics and even a “renunciation” of independence.
“When you sit down to negotiate, you are tacitly freezing the possibility of setting up another October 1, or of resuming the unilateral declaration in Parliament,” says Estefanía Molina, political scientist and journalist. in an opinion column in the newspaper ‘El País’.
What is certain is that this is a new phase for the Catalan independence and right-wing political formation, since it had never before entered into an agreement with the central Executive.
The promised “resistance” of the right and the extreme right
“Betrayal” is the word that the most conservative sectors of Spanish politics have repeated after the pact between the PSOE and Junts. For Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the right-wing PP party, the situation is “maximum serious in democratic terms.” The conservative politician has come to compare it with the coup d’état of 23-F and the terrorism of the ETA group.
“The agreements with the independentists break the equality of Spaniards before the law (…) The agreements of shame do not solve any problem, they aggravate all of them,” said Núñez Feijóo.
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, assured that Spain has entered “into a dictatorship,” which is why she called for a “serene and anger-free mobilization.” That is, protests against the pact. A position shared with the Spanish extreme right.
“A black period is beginning in the history of Spain. The coup plotters of the PSOE and Junts have sealed their threat to national unity today with a coup agreement that clearly includes the abolition of the rule of law,” said Santiago Abascal, leader of the party. extreme right Vox.
All in a clear call for mobilizations in this regard, which have already begun. Hundreds of people have gathered in Ferraz, the headquarters of the PSOE in the capital. In recent days, demonstrations in this same place and for the same reason caused serious disturbances.
“Don’t look at us, join” or “police, join!” are some of the slogans heard among the protesters on their way to the socialist headquarters. Protests that are expected to be repeated in the coming days.
And many far-right politicians and citizens of the country consider the agreement as an attempt to “break the country” or its conception of the nation.
Now, it remains to be seen if the agreement will resist this onslaught from the far right. For the moment, the next steps are the closing of an agreement between the PSOE and the Basque National Party (PNV) and the registration of the amnesty law in Congress, which the PP has already promised it will try to make as difficult as possible. Necessary steps before the investiture of Pedro Sánchez can take place.
With local media
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