Sánchez: “All Catalan independence supporters are going to be amnestied because they are not terrorists”

Pedro Sánchez and his team are working against the clock to convince Junts that the amnesty law is valid as it is, or with some minimal change, but not the one proposed by the independence party. The Government believes that going further and removing terrorism completely from the list of crimes excluded from the amnesty, as Junts requests, would imply the risk of the Constitutional Court or European justice overturning it. But this Thursday, in his first public intervention after Tuesday's severe parliamentary defeat, the president used a friendly tone to try to encourage Junts to return to the agreement. At La Moncloa they are convinced, and in this they have the support of all groups except Junts – including ERC – that, as it stands, the law protects all those involved in the processes. Although judges like Manuel García-Castellón intend to accuse Carles Puigdemont or Marta Rovira of terrorism, the Government is sure that this attempt will come to nothing in higher instances. And that is the message that Sánchez launched during a press conference in Brussels: “As everyone knows, the Catalan independence movement is not terrorism. With this bill, I am convinced that all Catalan independence supporters will be amnestied because they are not terrorists.”

The president had prepared a pedagogical speech, but in a very soft tone, far from the first words of indignation that the Government launched immediately after the failure of the vote on the amnesty law on Tuesday in Congress due to the no of Junts. Sánchez has insisted that the law is fine as it is, although the Executive is not openly closed to any type of change that could help Junts move towards yes, but as long as it does not put the constitutionality of the law at risk. “If that is the conviction [que todos los implicados van a ser amnistiados] After carrying out a very laborious project, if we have done all that work that has resulted in a brave, restorative and constitutional law, the objective is for the law to come out of Congress like this: brave, restorative and with the legal guarantees so that it can be approved.” And he concluded: “We have all given in to achieve a brave, restorative, constitutional law,” insisting on the idea that Junts supported this drafting of the law until the turn of the last day.

The organizational secretary of Junts and one of the main negotiators with the PSOE, Jordi Turull, has also responded to Sánchez in a conciliatory tone, although the positions remain firm: the president believes that the law is impeccable and is not open to touch it and the independentists demand total shielding in line with their amendment 29, which called for eliminating terrorism from the list of excluded crimes, which would make all types of terrorism enter. “We value Sánchez's statements positively, we agree that there has been no terrorism and that all pro-independence supporters should be amnestied. What we have to do now is protect it in the law and not leave what we agree on in the hands of the arbitrariness of judges who want to set the political agenda. Hence our vote the other day, which allows us to win 15 days so that in a calm and serene way we can legally translate what we agree on,” said Turull. Junts is receiving a lot of rejection for putting the law at risk with its vote, and Turull has tried to defend that controversial decision: “Our vote, so criticized, allows us to immerse ourselves in what we agree on, we leave it shielded and thus no one “You can make headless accusations.”

From Madrid, Alberto Núñez Feijóo quickly responded: “I regret having to remember that the President of the Government neither puts nor removes terrorist labels. That is up to justice. In any case, if this crime does not exist, it is not explained why they want to amnesty him,” said the opposition leader. Feijóo thus criticizes Sánchez for getting involved in the classification of crimes, and asks that he leave it to the judges, but in recent days he himself has insisted, on the contrary, that what happened in the processes was “kale borroka”, “terror”, “fascism” and “terrorist acts”.

Sánchez, who knows that the amnesty also has a significant rejection among some of his voters, takes advantage of showcases like this one, in Brussels — where Núñez Feijóo has also traveled these days trying to make lobby against the law—, to outline that pedagogy that many demand of him: “We have been trying to resolve a constitutional crisis for five and a half years that was not caused by me, who was not president in 2017. It was the most serious crisis in 45 years of democracy,” the president stated, pointing out that the independentistas “also” made “mistakes” at that time. And he added: “We have tried to overcome this collective trauma. Are we better than in 2017? Definitely yes. The pardons were an important step, and the amnesty law is the definitive step. It is a step that has broad support in Catalan society, which is prepared for this total reunion. The normalization of Catalonia will not come overnight, but my will is total.”

Everything in his speech this Thursday has been a message to Junts to return to the negotiation, to not ruin the legislature now that it has just begun. And with the strong idea that the socialist negotiators are conveying to the independentists: we cannot go any further because then the Constitutional Court could overthrow the law and then no one would benefit from it. “We must maintain temperance and firmness. Everything we have voted on so far, including Junts up to four times, is rigorous enough”, he continued.

Sánchez admits that the numbers in Congress are complicated, but he does not assume that it will be a more complicated legislature than the previous one and seems convinced, as his surroundings convey privately, that he will be able to channel the situation and that the parliamentary majority is not at risk. . “There is talk about the complexity of the legislature. I have never hidden it. But it is quite clear that the only ones capable of managing that complexity are us. Is it more difficult than the previous one? We come from a pandemic, from a war, from [la erupción de] a volcano. And we are leading growth and employment in the EU, we have the lowest unemployment rate in 15 years,” it has been claimed.

“A problem that I did not create”

“We are trying to solve a problem of coexistence that I did not create,” the president stressed. “Those who criticize me do not propose alternatives or the ones they propose make the hair stand on end: illegalization of political parties, imprisonment, returning to 2017 or worse,” he criticized the opposition to finish with a final call to Junts to negotiate again. : “We are at the moment of facing the reunion. We have all come this far together; six parties, some of them pro-independence. We have made generous efforts. The time has come to take the step. With this bill, the independence movement will be amnestied. We will be able to overcome all the causes that involved errors that they [los independentistas] they also committed.”

Sánchez has also sent a warning to Feijóo from Brussels, where the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary is being negotiated with the mediation of the European Commission, something unprecedented. “I am also going to remain firm with Mr. Feijóo, whom I have heard in Brussels once again make excuses for compliance with the Spanish C
onstitution with the renewal of the Judiciary,” said the president. The leader of the PP has demanded that the renewal occur simultaneously with the change in the election system. The European Commission talks about renewing first, something urgent after five years of expired mandate, and immediately afterwards looking for formulas to change the system. Feijóo demands both things at the same time, thus conditioning the renewal on the agreement on the reform, something that can block the negotiation and has bothered Sánchez.

“We have met for the renewal of the Council and, of course, for a new law that deepens judicial independence. Not only for one of these parts, but for the entire set. Let's not fool anyone. That is the framework: renewal and law, law and renewal. And this is simultaneous. And this is the framework, if not, we are not going to waste Commissioner Reynders' time,” said the opposition leader from Brussels. “I remind Mr. Feijóo that there is no excuse for not complying with the Constitution. If it is a constitutionalist party, let it comply with the Constitution and renew the Council,” the president concluded later.

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