The PSOE negotiates with Junts tweaks to the amnesty law with the “red line” of excluding terrorism

The PSOE Government is negotiating in several groups and separately with Junts and ERC to include some technical adjustments in the partial amendments to the amnesty law that this Thursday must pass the filter and vote in the specific presentation for that rule in Congress. The negotiation over the Executive's horn is led by the Minister of Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, who this Wednesday set a red line that seems untouchable regarding the cases that should be excluded from this measure of grace: “We believe that crimes Serious crimes must be exempt from the amnesty, as they already are in the bill. It is a principle in which we are very convinced.” The PSOE maintains, under pressure from Junts, Carles Puigdemont's party, that terrorism crimes with a final sentence should be excluded from amnesty, among other reasons, because, as the new report by the lawyer from the Justice Commission has now recalled, That benefit could be “contrary to European law.” Junts and ERC defend the opposite.

The negotiations of the PSOE Government with ERC and Junts to move forward in the presentation of the amnesty law a package of partial amendments with technical adjustments to the norm will be extended until 9:30 a.m. this Thursday, when the session begins in the Congress of that reduced body of the Justice Commission that next Tuesday will give the final approval to all the corrections that have passed this first filter. The PSOE is in permanent contact with the two Catalan independence parties to take on some of their amendments, but not the nuclear one that has caused this final controversy in the law and in which both Junts and ERC suppressed, in their respective texts and separately. , eliminate terrorism crimes with a final sentence from the exclusions for the amnesty.

Minister Bolaños, who is leading the negotiation above his group in Congress, set criteria this Wednesday regarding his willingness to engage in dialogue until the end, but also some red lines that seem insurmountable. Bolaños stated that the nine amendments agreed upon and registered together by the PSOE, ERC, Sumar, EH Bildu and BNG “reinforce a law that is already solid and impeccable and absolutely in accordance with the Constitution.” And he confirmed that the exception of this grace measure for terrorism crimes with a final sentence is a red line: “We believe that serious crimes must be excepted from the amnesty as they already are in the bill.” Different sources from the leadership of the socialist group stressed that this position is fixed and will not be negotiable and that they will only assume the amendments agreed upon with their partners, but the contacts have not ended and could be maintained even in the Justice commission next Tuesday and until the final plenary session, on January 30.

Junts' position, however, is also firm. Sources from the leadership of that group in Congress justify their 12 individual amendments in that they seek for the amnesty law to “include all cases of persecution against the independence movement without exceptions” and “have immediate effects in its application.” Also that it be more “broad and guaranteeing and that it is based on European and international law on amnesties.”

This allusion by Junts to European law clashes flatly with the reminder that the lawyer from the Congressional Justice Commission, Piedad García Escudero, has expressed just now in a report, who concludes regarding this exclusion of terrorism that it could be “contrary” to the European Union Directive in the financial and terrorism fields, assumed by Spain in February 2019.

The advisor to the Presidency of the Generalitat, Laura Vilagrà, from ERC, also conceded that they were keeping the negotiation alive, even on that point in dispute: “We know that majorities are complicated in Congress, but at the moment they are working to have them. and that these amendments be approved.” The Republican counselor explained that she saw the conversations “on the right lines” and bet that in the end “all the cases that affect the independence movement will be included”, in reference to the inclusion of the open cases on the Democratic Tsunami or the CDR, in the that there are accusations of terrorism.

At Junts they also insisted that they continue working on that parliamentary route, which the Government sees as closed for now, and reiterated: “Junts has always defended that the amnesty includes all those persecuted (Tsunami, Operation Judas…) and also those who are in the National Court. Treating the Catalan independence movement as terrorism is a legal aberration and a politicization of justice.”

The increasingly unpredictable attitude of Junts keeps the Government and its parties, PSOE and Sumar, on alert, which in the last hours could not ensure the direction of the first and tight votes scheduled for this Thursday's presentation of that party. PSOE and Sumar have 15 safe votes compared to the 17 fixed votes against the PP and Vox. The Executive needs 18 supports for its amendments to prosper and depends to reach that level on the not yet closed vote of Podemos (one representative), ERC (one), Junts (one), EH Bildu (one) or the PNV (one) . If Junts chose to vote with PP and Vox against the amendments to favor amnesty for the leaders of the independence process, something that would not make much sense but which in the current political panorama is not ruled out, these rectifications would decline and the norm would remain as the registered the PSOE alone last November.

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