The highly controversial amnesty law for Catalan independentists convicted or prosecuted for the failed secession attempt in 2017 was definitively approved this Thursday by the Spanish Parliament, opening the door to the return to Spain of former regional president Carles Puigdemont.
“Forgiveness is more powerful than resentment,” Sánchez wrote on the social network X after the approval. “Today Spain is more prosperous and more united than in 2017. Coexistence is making its way,” she added.
This measure, which has dominated Spanish political life since the legislative elections last July, could benefit around 400 people, according to an estimate by the Ministry of Justice.
The magistrates have two months to raise questions to the Constitutional Court or the European justice system from the publication of the law in the official gazette, which could delay the effects of the law for some time.
The vote was preceded by an angry session in which the president of the Chamber, Francina Armengol, was forced to call the attention of the deputies on several occasions.
“Traitor!” -directed at Sánchez-, “neofascists!”, “philonazis!” -to the far-right party Vox-, were some of the insults exchanged in the chamber.
Congress had already approved the measure on March 14, but the Senate, controlled by the right-wing opposition, vetoed it two months later, returning the text to the Lower House, which this Thursday said its last word.
This measure is the price that Pedro Sánchez had to pay to remain in power in the November investiture session, in which he needed the support of the Catalan independence parties.
independence ‘victory’
The representatives of the Catalan independence movement defined the law as a victory and assured that their next objective is to hold a secession referendum.
“Next stop, referendum,” said Gabriel Rufián, deputy of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the other Catalan independence party in the Spanish Congress.
The PP has been on the warpath for some time against this amnesty, which it considers “unconstitutional” and which it promises to repeal when it returns to power.
He has organized numerous demonstrations against it, the last of which brought together tens of thousands of people in Madrid on Sunday. There, Núñez Feijóo again asked Sánchez to “withdraw this amnesty.”
‘Make necessity a virtue’
“You have to make a virtue of necessity,” Sánchez repeated on several occasions to explain his turn.
Polls show that Spaniards are divided over the measure, including voters and socialist sympathizers.
However, the regional elections held in Catalonia on May 12, in which the independence movement lost its absolute majority in the Catalan Parliament and recorded its worst results in 40 years, seem to have proven Sánchez right.
The Catalan branch of the Socialist Party came out well, and its leader, Salvador Illa, is in a position to aspire to be the next president of the regional government.
Puigdemont, whose party also made progress in the regional elections, and who claims to lead a minority pro-independence government, said during the campaign that he hoped to return to Spain to be present at the investiture debate in the Catalan Parliament, the date for which has not been set but which should take place on June 25 at the latest.
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