The Catalan pro-independence party has threatened to withdraw its support for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist party if they do not a pass “comprehensive” amnesty law to pardon all offences committed by Catalan separatist forces between 2012 and 2023.
In an interview aired by radio station RAC-1 on Wednesday (31 January), Jordi Turull, secretary general of Together for Catalonia (Junts), recalled that the investiture pact signed on 9 November last year between the Spanish socialist party (PSOE) and the pro-independence Junts was “to resolve the political conflict” between “Catalonia and Spain”.
“The basis [of the agreement] was the amnesty law and that no people would be left pending [outside the legal coverage of the new law]. If this base fails, we don’t even need to talk about the rest [of the issues],” Turull warned, according to reporting by Euractiv’s partner EFE.
Sánchez’s government depends on the parliamentary backing of Junts (right-wing) and the other major Catalan separatist party, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), as well as the Basque pro-independence political formations: the right-wing PNV and the radical left EH-Bildu.
Government stability hangs in the balance
Turull’s serious warning comes a day after Junts voted, at the last minute, against the draft of the controversial amnesty law, distancing itself from ERC, which did support the draft text submitted by the PSOE.
Only minutes before the vote, Junts – the party of former Catalan president and current MEP Carles Puigdemont – demanded changes to the bill to ensure that the amnesty law did not exclude anyone involved in the secessionist movement in Catalonia.
On Wednesday, the controversial bill returned to the Parliament’s Justice Committee where it is being processed. Junts said they are confident that the PSOE will implement the changes it has demanded in exchange for not withdrawing its parliamentary backing, which – in principle – would lead to the fall of the government.
However, both the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños (PSOE/S&D) and sources in the socialist party warned on Wednesday that the text must strictly comply with the 1978 Spanish Constitution, and that accepting the amendments demanded by Junts would be a violation of it – a red line for Madrid.
No to Puigdemont’s “diktat”
Several Spanish ministers on Wednesday urged Junts to reconsider its position.
Junts’ ultimate goal is to “shield” the amnesty law so that neither the centre-right Partido Popular (PP/EPP), the main opposition force in Parliament, nor the far-right Vox party (ECR), the third political force, can have a chance to appeal the text before the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court or the EU Court of Justice.
Junts – which has seven seats in the Spanish parliament – had pledged to support Sánchez’s government during the almost four years of the legislature, including the approval of the national budgets, a key element to give continuity to the executive’s social policies.
Behind the enormous pressure Puigdemont is exerting on Sánchez is the ultimate goal of ensuring that neither he nor other separatist leaders involved in the serious secessionist attempt of 2017 and other illegal actions – including very specific cases of “terrorism” – committed by Catalan pro-independence forces can be arrested and prosecuted if they return to Spain.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
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Source: euractiv.com
