The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the Catalan independence party Together for Catalonia (JxCat) signed this Thursday (9), in Brussels, an agreement to unblock the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez as president of the government of Spain, which includes a future amnesty for independentists prosecuted by the courts.
This agreement is essential so that socialist leader Pedro Sánchez can take office as president for another four years in Spain, after frustrated attempts by the center-right leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The pact was signed by the “number three” of the PSOE, its Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán, and the general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull.
JxCat and PSOE negotiators closed the agreement in the last few hours, after a few days of intensified contacts, with multiple exchanges of documents to polish the wording of the amnesty law and prevent its potential beneficiaries from being affected by restrictive interpretations.
This amnesty law will have to be registered in the coming days in the Spanish Parliament for processing, before the debate on the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez, which is scheduled for next week.
Santos Cerdán said today in Brussels that the agreement between his party and JxCat for a future amnesty does not include “names” and covers people related “directly or indirectly” to the process “between 2012 and 2023”.
The PSOE also guaranteed that the agreement with JxCat is for the legislature and not just for the inauguration.
The former regional president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, will speak to the press this Thursday to give details of the negotiation of the agreement, which according to the sources consulted includes some cases of “lawfare” (judicialization of politics) that imply, according to the same Catalan leader, a “strategic use of laws to harm dissidents”.
Puigdemont was president of the Catalonia region in 2017, when a process was promoted by nationalist forces that included an independence consultation with citizens and which was declared illegal by the Spanish courts.
The former Catalan president and some of his collaborators fled Spain and avoided being tried, while other prosecutors in this case were taken to court and served prison sentences, although they were later pardoned.
JxCat’s seats in Congress are decisive for the socialist leader to renew his mandate after reaching an agreement with his current government partner, a left-wing coalition now called Sumar, as well as other Catalan and Basque nationalist forces.
This amnesty project is heavily criticized by the conservative Popular Party (PP), which won the elections on July 23, but whose leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, did not get enough votes to become president of the government when he tried to take office in October.
Furthermore, the project is rejected by Vox, a right-wing party whose leaders have supported the protests in front of PSOE headquarters which, in the case of Madrid, have recorded several incidents in recent days that have required police intervention.
The negotiating table has been shaken in recent days by the impact of the decision by the judge of the Spanish National Court, Manuel García Castellón, who agreed to direct the terrorism investigation against Puigdemont and other prosecuting independence activists. (With EFE agency)
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