Sánchez to be sworn in this week, far-right takes him to court

Spanish acting PM Pedro Sánchez is expected to be confirmed for another four-year term during a session in parliament on Wednesday and Thursday, while Vox plans to block the process in addition to calling for a general strike against Catalan amnesty law, which will pardon 300+ independentists.

“I have called (the investiture debate) because after talking these last few days with the candidate (Sánchez)… and after having transmitted to me that he has already done the whole round of negotiations with the different political groups in this Parliament, he (the Socialist candidate) is already in a position to be able to go to the investiture debate,” the parliament’s spokesperson Francine Armengol announced on Monday.

Meanwhile, the far-right Vox party, the third force in parliament, announced on Monday that it will ask the Supreme Court on Tuesday to suspend Sánchez’s investiture session and will file a complaint against the acting prime minister and leader of the PSOE (S&D), whom he accused of being a “traitor” and a “dictator”.

At a press conference in Madrid, Vox president Santiago Abascal called on Partido Popular (PP/EPP) leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, head of the opposition, to use the majority the PP has in the Senate to stop the amnesty law, and asked him to coordinate new demonstrations together in the autonomous regions, provincial councils and city councils in which both right-wing parties govern in coalition, among them in Valencia (East).

Abascal warned that Vox “will not stop” and will continue to protest in front of PSOE headquarters throughout Spain.

In addition to the demonstrations, the trade union Solidaridad, directly linked to Vox, has called for a general strike on 24 November to protest against the extraordinary measure of grace.

King Felipe VI appointed Sánchez to form a government last month, after Núñez Feijóo, who narrowly beat PSOE in the 23 July snap general election, failed in his attempts to garner enough support for a parliamentary majority of 176 seats (out of 350).

Sánchez’s path to power was cleared last week after the PSOE struck deals with Catalan pro-independence parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia, ERC) and Junts per Catalunya (Together For Catalonia, JxCat), as well as the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Canary Islands Coalition (CC), giving Sánchez 179 votes.

JxCat leader and former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium since he and hundreds of other separatist politicians and activists were charged for their role in an unsanctioned independence referendum in 2017, had refused to back Sánchez in the government if the charges were not lifted, among other “red lines”.

Both ERC and JxCat have also obtained broad concessions from the PSOE, especially on economic matters, including the cancellation of €15 billion of Catalonia’s debt with the central state, the complete transfer of the competencies of the commuter train network from Madrid to Catalonia and the possibility of future tax collection by the regional government (Generalitat), among other points.

The law clears ‘criminal responsibility’ of hundreds of separatists

The extraordinary measure of grace from which, among others, Puigdemont will benefit to return to Spain without fear of being arrested, will annul the “penal, administrative and accounting responsibility” of all those linked to the preparation, execution and consequences of the pro-independence process in Catalonia between 1 January 2012 and 13 November 2023, the text of the law reads.

The law will benefit 300 independentists and 73 police officers, El País reported.

The pardon will benefit not only the top separatist leaders Oriol Junqueras (ERC) and Puigdemont but also school principals who cooperated to organise the 1 October 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia, as well as mayors, protesters and police officers who acted during the referendum, which was considered unlawful by the Spanish justice.

The new rule establishes a maximum of two months for the courts and administrative or accounting bodies involved in cases linked to the Catalan independence process to implement the amnesty law and specifies that its application will be “preferential and urgent” in that period and that possible appeals against the decisions adopted “will not have suspensive effects”, which would annul the measures.

The drafters of the controversial norm justify its necessity in that the application of legality (judging those responsible) is “necessary”, but “on occasions, it is not sufficient to resolve a political conflict (Madrid-Catalonia) sustained over time”, which is why they advocate that the law should adapt to the current political context in Spain.

“This amnesty constitutes a political decision adopted under the principle of justice in the understanding that the instruments available to the rule of law are not, nor should they be, immovable; since it is the law that is at the service of society and not the other way around,” the text of the new law reads, El Periódico de Cataluña reported.

The arrest warrant against Puigdemont, now without effect

The pardon includes a direct reference to Puigdemont, as the text states that “the search and arrest warrants and arrest warrants will be without effect” as well as “national, European and international arrest warrants”, which also affect three other Catalan separatist leaders on the run from Spanish justice for the serious events of 2017.

They are the former “councillors” (regional ministers) Antoni Comín and Lluis Puig along with ERC Secretary General Marta Rovira. These three separatist leaders were subject to a national arrest warrant.

On the other hand, the text of the law does not include any allusion to “lawfare” or political persecution by the courts against separatist leaders – as argued by JxCat and ERC – nor does it mention the possibility of creating commissions of enquiry in Parliament on sentences (against separatists), which had generated unanimous protests from the judiciary in recent days.

The law does provide for the reform of the Penal Code to include amnesty as an express cause for extinguishing criminal responsibility, along with pardon.

The law excludes pardon for terrorist crimes when there is a final conviction and these crimes have consisted of any of the conducts envisaged in the European directives, which range from lethal attacks to the manufacture of explosives, as well as torture.

This exclusion leaves up in the air a possible amnesty for two of the legal cases currently open against separatist leaders for terrorism: the one related to the protests of the pro-independence platform Tsunami Democràtic, in which Puigdemont and Marta Rovira are being investigated, as well as that of the so-called Committees for the Defence of the (Catalan) Republic (CDR) tried for planning acts of sabotage.

Another crime that is outside the scope of the amnesty law is torture or inhuman or degrading treatment under the European Convention on Human Rights, “provided that it exceeds a minimum threshold of severity”.

This opens the door to applying the amnesty law to police officers (National Police) and Civil Guards (militarised police) prosecuted for their actions to prevent the 2017 referendum, as long as they have not incurred extremely serious conduct.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)