Spanish rule of law battle engulfs Brussels, Sánchez called ‘Orbán of the south’

Spain’s political turmoil continues to engulf EU institutions as the Commission is trapped in the middle of a cross-fire letter frenzy between political forces demanding action, prompting debates and division among EU Parliament groups ahead of a key debate next week.

With the help of the European People’s Party (EPP), Spain’s opposition centre-right Partido Popular (PP) is on a quest to bring up to the EU stage the political turmoil following Sánchez’s agreements with Basque and Catalan nationalist parties to gather enough support to form a government.

The main concerns lay in a controversial amnesty law clearing charges from 300+ independentists involved in the Catalan secessionist attempt back in 2017, and the proposed parliamentary supervision of “lawfare” usage by judges.

On Monday, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo summoned 30+ European journalists to “analyse” the political turmoil and called the EU once again to safeguard Spain’s rule of law, demanding similar action to that taken for rule of law concerns in Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

Such a call for EU intervention follows a long list of instances when Spain has brought internal politics to Brussels in the past months, such as a controversial regional irrigation law in May, and a last-minute vote in the European Council in September to make Catalan, Basque, and Galician EU official languages.

Vice-president of the EPP and MEP González Pons said “Pedro Sánchez is the Viktor Orbán from the south” on X.

EU Parliament groups pick sides, Renew corners Basque MEP

Centre-right EPP chief Manfred Weber announced on Monday the group’s intention to request a debate during the next plenary session on 20 November, which is seen as an attempt to “disrupt Spain” by the socialists.

“It is quite obvious that the three right-wing parties [PP, Vox, Ciudadanos] that have opposed Pedro Sánchez’s government for years are prepared to do anything to disrupt Spain, to disrupt the quality of democracy in order to damage Pedro Sánchez’s progressive coalition”, MEP Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, told Euractiv.

Though “not against the holding of any debate”, the socialists criticise the use of the European Parliament debates as “a political tool”, as the amnesty law still needs to be debated in the Spanish Parliament, he said.

He also assured that the entire S&D group “is convinced” that the amnesty law is consistent with the Spanish constitution, EU law, and jurisprudence of the EU’s Court of Justice and ECHR.

Along the same lines, The Left group in the European Parliament “always opposes” PP’s attempts at “using EU institutions to fight its national political battles”, a spokesperson told Euractiv.

The Greens/EFA group, “do rather not support the debate”, though a final decision will be taken this week, group sources affirm.

This is not a surprise, as the Catalan independentist party ‘Republican Left of Catalonia’ (ERC), part of the controversial amnesty deal, is part of the group.

“The PP is in a competition with the neo-Francoists of Vox to see who is more populist and more Spanish nationalist”, ERC MEP Jordi Solé told Euractiv, though affirming that a debate would be useful if it focuses on amnesty “and why is needed”.

Contrarily, Renew Europe, following the lead of Spanish party member Ciudadanos – on life support since May’s regional elections – confirmed on Tuesday they support a debate “with Council and Commission on the threats to rule of law as a consequence of the governmental agreement in Spain”, a group spokesperson told Euractiv.

With this decision, the liberals corner their own colleague, Basque MEP Izaskun Bilbao, part of the Basque Nationalist Party, which has also signed an agreement with Sánchez.

“The PP and the rest of the major Spanish parties have always argued that the problem of Catalonia is an internal Spanish problem. Now, suddenly, it becomes a European problem and must be debated. Incomprehensible inconsistency”, she told Euractiv.

Izaskun was on an ad hoc mission related to SMEs in Bilbao and could not intervene during the group meeting when the decision was taken.

ECR group, of which Spanish Vox is part, “not only supports but is also asking” for such debate, a group spokesperson confirmed.

“In 2019, in response to an amnesty law in Romania, which was not nearly as extreme as the one Sánchez intends (…) the bureaucrats of the EU came out in force. Every day of silence is a day of complicity”, Vox MEP Jorge Buxadé added.

The ID group will reassess once the EPP formally puts forward the debate, a spokesperson said.

The Commission trapped in a letter frenzy

On Monday, Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and MEP Antoni Comín sent a letter, obtained by Euractiv, to Commission Vice-president Věra Jourová evening asking “to consider the impartiality of the [Spanish] judiciary and its structural ideological bias” during the next EU annual rule of law reports.

The letter criticises the General Body of the Judicial Power (CGPJ) – Spain’s highest judicial authority – and its “several violations of basic standards of the rule of law”, after the body issued a “political statement” raising concerns about the amnesty law.

In the past weeks, PP and Ciudadanos MEPs, and Spanish citizens have also flooded the Commission with letters demanding an intervention.

Following the complaints, the European Commission and the Spanish government had a bitter exchange of letters on 9 November, with Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders asking for more information about the amnesty law while flagging “serious concerns”.

After Spain sent back the details of the law on Monday, a high-ranking Commission official reportedly confirmed that the amnesty law will not spur the Commission’s intervention, as the EU’s financial interests are safeguarded and the concept of the politicisation of justice, which was included in the agreement with Catalan nationalist parties, is not included.

Commission chief spokesperson Eric Mamer, however, assured on X that “contrary to reports, the Commission has no preliminary assessment of the draft amnesty law submitted to the Spanish parliament.”

(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)