Felipe González: “The amnesty is a self-amnesty, made by the amnestied themselves. It's strange and difficult to accept.”

The amnesty law continues to widen the gap between Felipe González and Pedro Sánchez. The former president of the Government has reaffirmed himself this Tuesday in his criticism of the grace measure on a day of marked symbolism: a few hours before the PP and the PSOE had momentarily put aside their usual differences to reform the Constitution for the third time and replace by common agreement the term 'disabled' with that of 'people with disabilities', in an exceptional day for the polarized Spanish politics that culminated with the presentation of amendments to the proposed amnesty law that Sánchez accepted “making a virtue of necessity.” “The amnesty is a self-amnesty, made by the amnestied themselves. Not only is it weird, it's hard to accept. “It is regulated and decided by the self-amnesty,” González criticized in an implicit allusion to Carles Puigdemont, the Junts leader who escaped from Spanish justice in Belgium after the illegal secessionist challenge of the processes of 2017.

“Now they want to correct it so that no flaws escape,” the former socialist president explained in an event that he shared with Eduardo Madina, a former socialist deputy who faced Sánchez in the 2014 primaries for the general secretary of the PSOE, organized by the Gregorio Peces-Barba Foundation with the collaboration of the Felipe González Foundation and the La Caixa Foundation. “They have given me the opportunity to be with the politician I have admired most in my life. I was educated with him, with his values ​​and ideas, in his way of understanding institutions, of understanding the past, present and future of socialist acronyms… I am a son of that Constitution, Felipe is one of the most significant leaders of the Transition to a consolidated democracy: everything was possible thanks to the pact of 78″, Madina has assessed.

The former president did not mince his words and stressed that he was criticizing his party's government, which covered both the amnesty negotiations and the “spectacle of the so-called omnibus law” last week in Congress, when The Government agonizingly saved two of the three royal decrees that were voted on in the Cortes. González has agreed with the reproaches of the partners of the coalition Executive and is not a supporter of the decree laws “where very diverse measures are mixed.” “Do you accept the entire package or are we going to blame you for not allowing progress on such a thing? We have to overcome this emergency situation,” he observed about the situation that during the last legislature has been repeated in numerous votes to the discomfort of the Government's allies. “In the last plenary session of Congress I had a very bad time because I heard an unbearable echo… But how can a law be changed to ensure that the Supreme Court does not raise a prejudicial question?” he highlighted in reference to one of the sections. that Junts demanded in exchange for allowing the approval of the decrees.

But the amnesty has undoubtedly been the issue that has materialized the criticisms of the socialist leader before some 300 attendees, among whom were the presidents of the Congress and the Senate, Francina Armengol and Pedro Rollán; Miquel Roca, father of the Fundamental Law; Carlos Lesmes, former president of the General Council of the Judiciary; judges of the Supreme Court such as Pablo Llarena and other members of the judicial world; former socialist ministers such as Carlos Solchaga and Virgilio Zapatero, the former president of Extremadura Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra and the former union leader Cándido Méndez. The only leader of the current PSOE has been Juan Lobato, the general secretary of the party in Madrid.

“We are discussing the amnesty, which is the forgetting of what they have done, I ask that they accept the rules of the game. Whatever it is, at least they will commit to complying with the legal system, we are not asking them to change their ideas,” he said after expressing “all” his “affection for the judicial and fiscal authorities now that they are receiving unjustified attacks, just like the Constitution, and they are permanently harassed by those who now ask for self-amnesty,” he continued in what seemed like another obvious reference to Miriam Nogueras, the Junts spokesperson in Congress. In this context, González has reaffirmed his convictions: “I am in the position that my party was on July 23. And the 24th too. What has changed my game? Very good, but am I forced to change? No”, he declared. “I will defend the independence of the judiciary and the division of powers that is seriously and seriously threatened,” he added.

Darts have also not been lacking for meetings like the one that the PSOE held with Junts in December in Geneva with a Salvadoran diplomat, Francisco Galindo Vélez, as “verifier.” “It seems to me a loss of maturity and full democracy through long effort and exercise. How is it possible that our problems can be resolved through the intermediation of a man who seems respectable to me but does not seem to me to have professional or democratic qualifications? ”González stated.

The former president has defended the “impeccable” speech of Felipe VI on Christmas Eve, focused on the vindication of the Constitution and the unity of Spain and in which the King asked that the State institutions respect each other “in the exercise of their powers.” ”. “An avalanche of criticism has opened towards a speech that defended the Constitution and its values. I thank those who came out against that speech and the Constitution, who do not represent more than 14% of the representatives in Congress, they are a minority,” he observed in reference to the nationalist parties.

Aware that the PP and the PSOE do not give a truce even in the most exceptional moments, not even on the day they agreed to approve the third reform of the Constitution with the modification of article 49, González has urged the two major parties to abandon the confrontation. “There are two majority parties that today, after July 23, have the 210 deputies that are essential to make reforms at the institutional or other level. “Either they accept that they are condemned to be understood by the free expression of the Spanish people or they continue to create walls and fictitious divisions,” he highlighted in another clear criticism of Sánchez, who after rebuilding his parliamentary majority as a result of the 23-J elections has proclaimed that Its objective is to “raise a wall” against the extreme right. “Citizens have expressed the will for the major parties to agree on the fundamentals. Majorities weaken when they depend on the extremes… The more they shout at one end and the other of the Marx Brothers cabin, the fewer votes they have but the more they influence the central parties,” González concluded.

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