When Alberto Núñez Feijóo was still waiting for his turn to take the speaker’s rostrum in Congress in the debate on the amnesty law, Isabel Díaz Ayuso had already announced the response that PP was going to give. The 11 autonomous communities governed by the popular ones, the president of the Community of Madrid advanced, going ahead in explaining the political action of the conservatives, would present an appeal against the rule before the Constitutional Court. After her, the rest of the regional presidents of the PP confirmed their own resources in a cascade. Not so the leader of the PP, who in his speech in Parliament ignored this issue and avoided saying that his party will appeal the rule in court. Sources from the PP leadership explained after the debate that the appeal, which they do confirm will be presented by the Popular Parliamentary Group against the law, “is not”, however, “the most urgent thing.” Génova hides behind the popular communities and delays its challenge while waiting for the movements of judges and prosecutors in the application of the rule, to gather arguments before a court of guarantees in which “there is not much confidence.”
Ayuso’s announcement caused discomfort among other regional presidents, who complained privately that “it was not what had been talked about.” The Madrid leader went ahead in announcing the news, although the majority of the PP’s regional governments had already announced their willingness to appeal the amnesty months ago. After her, this Thursday, all the popular barons appeared with coordinated messages. “This clearly represents a breach of the principle of equality among all Spaniards,” Andalusian Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla proclaimed about the measure of grace. “Today is a sad day for the equality of the territories,” lamented Valencian Carlos Mazón. “The approval of the amnesty law is one of the black pages of our history,” said Jorge Azcón from Aragon.
“As representatives of the State, we cannot allow the creation of a State of privileges for some leaders, that there are autonomous communities and leaders who are not subject to the law,” Ayuso had questioned early on. The political message of frontal rejection of the amnesty is clear in the PP, although there are more nuances about the legal strategy to try to overthrow the norm.
In his speech before Congress, in which he focused his criticism on the Socialist Party – to the point of announcing that this Thursday he had attended the “death certificate of the PSOE” – Feijóo suggested that the PP hopes that justice will now be the move token. “Legally,” he said, “it will be a matter for the courts and the EU to defeat the amnesty law.” The leader of the PP also left open the possibility that the law will not end up being applied. “If it is not finally applied,” he slipped, before addressing the independentists, “we all know that you are not going to forgive it.” That scenario that Feijóo handles, that of a norm approved by the absolute majority of Parliament not being deployed, depends on judicial action. There the PP will also have to play its role with its resources, which is why the conservatives want to measure their steps very well.
The national leadership of the PP recognizes that it is in no hurry to present its own appeal to the Constitutional Court, which corresponds to its parliamentary groups in Congress and Senate (since 50 deputies or senators are entitled to do so). Génova confirms that the amnesty law will be challenged before the court of guarantees, and that both the regional governments and the management will do so, in parallel, through groups, but does not anticipate any date to do so. The appeal “is not imminent,” they point out. The PP plays this time with the peace of mind that Vox can no longer present appeals to the Constitutional Court, because it only has 33 deputies and does not reach the required minimum of fifty. Without the pressure of the ultras, the PP can manage its times, and prefers to wait.
The strategy, as explained by management sources, is to “mature the resource with the breathing of prosecutors and the courts.” “We are going to wait and see where the judiciary goes,” these interlocutors indicate. The PP awaits the movements of judges and prosecutors, who are now responsible for the application of the rule, which is assumed to be paralyzed by the preliminary rulings that are posed to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The conservatives will use the arguments that are handled in court to incorporate them into their appeal before the TC, and thus seek to make it more difficult for the court of guarantees to endorse the norm.
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The underlying problem is that the PP knows that it will be difficult for the Constitutional Court, with a progressive majority, to overturn the amnesty law. “We don’t trust the TC much,” they admit in the popular leadership. Deputy Secretary Esteban González Pons even said that this court is “the cancer of democracy,” although he later had to retract it. The fear of the blow is present in the PP, which has already given up raising the conflict of powers between Congress and the Senate, and also did not achieve the response it expected in the Venice Commission report.
The popular ones will, therefore, wait for the judges’ action to build their resources before a court of guarantees in which they do not trust. Although the autonomous communities of the PP have announced before Genoa their willingness to resort to the Constitutional Court, sources from several autonomous governments of the PP warn that they will register them “when best appropriate for their success.” That is, they will also measure your steps. Only Ayuso seems willing to continue being the advance guard. The Government of Madrid will not wait that long to file her appeal: “Right now,” the president said this Thursday.
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