Sánchez navigates controversial amnesty bill changes to secure separatist support

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accepted changes to the text of the controversial amnesty bill on Wednesday – the latest version of which is almost certain to be approved on Thursday – to satisfy the Catalan separatists who remain key to the government’s stability.

Although the final version of the amnesty bill, which the right-wing opposition considers unconstitutional, has not yet been published, Sánchez assured that the text would respect the Spanish Constitution while benefitting those responsible for the illegal actions of the separatists in Catalonia between 2012 and 2023.

However, despite Sánchez’s risky “balancing act,” right-wing parties fiercely attacked these “last-minute adjustments” to the text, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

In an interview aired Wednesday by Telecinco, Miguel Tellado, parliamentary spokesman for Spain’s People’s Party (PP/EPP), denounced the “political, legal, and moral aberration” which, in his opinion, means bowing to the demands of the Catalan pro-independence forces.

“We are seeing how the blackmailed (Sánchez) constantly accepts the changes, the pressures, of those who want (Puigdemont) to legislate à la carte to benefit people, with names and surnames, who have committed crimes and who are awaiting justice,” said Tellado.

At the end of January 2023, right-wing separatist party JxCat, led by former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont from his self-imposed exile in Belgium, voted against a draft text presented by Sanchez’s PSOE because it did not fully “shield” JxCat members involved in separatist actions.

The four-year legislative pact signed between PSOE and Puigdemont’s party last November includes the approval of an amnesty law for all separatist activists, cancelling Catalonia’s €15 billion debt to Madrid and the transfer of powers over Madrid’s commuter trains to Catalonia. It also includes the possibility for the region to collect taxes autonomously.

The bill still has to pass through the Senate, where the PP has a majority and where the right-wing formation has promised to block it as long as possible.

On Wednesday it was still unclear what changes would be made to the text, with one of the most widely speculated points being whether the future law would cover alleged “terrorist” acts committed by the separatist Democratic Tsunami movement.

This point is particularly controversial as the Spanish Supreme Court decided on 29 February to investigate Puigdemont and another separatist leader for alleged crimes of ‘terrorism’, setting off alarm bells within the pro-independence movement.

Labour Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz (Sumar) said the future law is “fully constitutional” in an interview aired Wednesday on public radio (RNE).

If the bill is approved, Puigdemont, ERC Secretary-General Marta Rovira and other Catalan separatist leaders will be able to return to Spain without fear of arrest or trial.

Díaz made it clear that the bill is not “tailor-made for anyone,” nor is it exclusively for Rovira or Puigdemont, as the PP and the far-right VOX party, the third force in parliament, claimed.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)