Spain strikes Catalan amnesty deal, paves way for full Sánchez term

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party, which leads a minority left-wing coalition government with the progressive Sumar platform, reached a final deal with Catalan pro-independence parties to pardon separatist leaders in exchange for their parliamentary support to keep Sánchez in power until the end of his second term in 2027.

The president of Catalonia’s regional government, the pro-independence Pere Aragonès, also expressed his satisfaction on Thursday at approving the new amnesty law in parliament’s Justice Committee on the same day.

“(Today) is a great day because the amnesty law puts an end to the repression and is the beginning of the end of a nightmare that has meant imprisonment, exile and the threat to hundreds of people” for defending “the cause of Catalan independence,” he stated.

Under the controversial deal, which was reached after weeks of tense discussions, the government will grant pardons to Catalan separatists who were charged with sedition and terrorism offences for their roles in an unsanctioned independence referendum held in 2017 and subsequent protests, Euractiv´s partner EFE reported.

In exchange for the amnesty, Catalonia’s two main separatist parties, the right-wing JxCat and its left-wing rival ERC- will back Sanchez’s bid to govern for another four-year term and give PSOE (S&D), the required votes for a slim majority in parliament.

Former Catalonia president and JxCat leader Carles Puigdemont—who has lived in self-imposed exile in Belgium since he and hundreds of others were charged with leading the push for independence—had refused to back Sanchez without a “comprehensive amnesty.”

JxCat had also rejected a proposal in January this year, which the party felt did not provide enough guarantees that the separatists would not be prosecuted.

The amnesty deal covers “all persons linked to the independence process” and is “fully in accordance with the Constitution, EU law and jurisprudence and the best European and international standards,” the parties said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Sanchez had also long insisted that granting pardons to the separatists was the only way to move the country forward.

Weber: Sánchez is ‘Puigdemont’s puppet’

The conservative opposition People’s Party (PP) leader, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, slammed the deal as a “scandal” on Thursday.

In a speech to the European People’s Party (EPP) congress in Bucharest, he accused the Sanchez government of allowing “very serious crimes” to go unpunished.

“Today, a European government is going to let very serious crimes against the heart of the EU go unpunished,” said Núñez Feijóo.

Meanwhile, the President of the EPP, Manfred Weber, fiercely attacked the Spanish prime minister.

“In Spain, Sánchez is becoming a puppet of Puigdemont (…). Shame on Mr Sánchez, shame on the socialists,” Weber told the EPP congress in Bucharest.

The controversial amnesty law could be approved by the Spanish Parliament by the end of May or early June, just a few days before the European elections.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)