The controversial amnesty law to pardon separatist leaders and their supporters for unlawful actions that took place between 2012 and 2023 will be facing its final amendment debate in the Spanish parliament on Tuesday.
It is the last chance for the ruling parties, the Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D) and the left-wing platform Sumar, along with the Catalan and Basque separatist forces, to make changes to the controversial text, which the right-wing and far-right opposition considers unconstitutional.
One of the most sensitive points is the inclusion of certain types of “terrorist” actions, Euractiv´s partner EFE reported.
Last Tuesday, the Justice Committee of the parliament, where the law is being processed to be sent to the Senate, approved changes to the text agreed by the PSOE with the right-wing separatist party Together For Catalonia (JxCat) and the left-wing Catalan separatist formation Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), whose parliamentary backing is essential to secure the stability of the progressive executive.
The amendments and changes to the text that are accepted on Tuesday will be inserted in the final text of the law, which will then be voted on in the Senate, where Partido Popular Party (PP/EPP), the main opposition force, has a majority and vowed to block it.
One of the sections of the norm that could be modified this Tuesday is Article 2 of the text, which deals with which crimes are excluded from the application of the amnesty.
The original article included in the draft of the new law –presented by the PSOE last November – excluded terrorist offences from the amnesty “as long as there is a final judgment” on a specific case.
However, in the text agreed last Tuesday by the PSOE and JxCat, the reference to the “final judgement” has been deleted, and it is established that acts of terrorism that resulted in serious violations of human rights in a manifest manner and with direct intent will not be pardoned.
The PP and Vox have staged mass demonstrations in major Spanish cities in recent months and have announced that they will take the controversial extraordinary measure of grace to the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and also the EU Court of Justice.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)
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Source: euractiv.com
