“Corruption”, “abolition of the rule of law”: the right-wing opposition and part of the judiciary are toughening their tone in Spain against the amnesty for Catalan separatists negotiated by outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in exchange for his reappointment in power.
Coming second in the legislative elections of July 23, Mr. Sánchez has until November 27 to obtain the confidence of Parliament and remain in power, failing which a new vote will have to be called.
In order to obtain the essential support of deputies from the Catalan independence parties, the socialist accepted their demand for an amnesty for separatists prosecuted by the Spanish justice system, in particular for their involvement in the aborted attempt at secession of Catalonia in 2017.
Already assured of the support of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), a moderate separatist group at the head of this region of north-eastern Spain, all it needs is the green light from Together for Catalonia (Junts Per Catalunya), the party of Carles Puigdemont, leader of the events of 2017.
“We are in the final stretch of a negotiation which has been difficult […] and which will allow us to open a new stage” in Catalonia, Jaume Asens, one of the main negotiators of the left with Puigdemont, declared on Monday.
Demonstrations
Very controversial, this amnesty project, which will have to be voted on by Parliament, has for weeks aroused an outcry from the right-wing opposition which has further hardened its tone in recent days and has promised to increase appeals against its application .
She criticizes Pedro Sánchez, who was himself opposed to such an idea in the past, for being ready to do anything for the sole purpose of remaining in power.
“They are not going to silence us,” launched Monday the leader of the Popular Party (PP, right), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who came first in the legislative elections but who failed at the end of September to be invested as prime minister, due to lack of sufficient support.
Mr. Feijóo called on PP sympathizers for a new mobilization on Sunday in all the country’s departmental capitals to defend “the rule of law” against a “scandal […] of a new dimension.”
Another demonstration, which will be attended by leaders of the right and the far right, is planned for Saturday November 18 in Madrid.
“Abolition of the rule of law”
Part of the judiciary also criticized, in particularly harsh terms, this amnesty which arouses criticism even within Mr. Sánchez’s Socialist Party.
The Professional Association of the Judiciary (APM), a conservative organization with a majority among judges, judged last Thursday in a press release that this measure constituted “the beginning of the end of our democracy” and “exploded the rule of law”.
The conservative members of the General Council of the Judiciary also obtained the convening of an extraordinary meeting of this key body responsible for appointing judges on Monday at the end of the day on the subject of amnesty.
These members judge in a text that the amnesty for separatists represents “a degradation or even an abolition of the rule of law”.
Following the 2017 secession attempt, hundreds of people were prosecuted in Catalonia by the courts, accused by the separatists of being the arm of the “repression” of their movement by the “Spanish state”.
The main leaders of the movement then fled abroad, like Mr. Puigdemont, or were incarcerated and then sentenced in 2019 to sentences of up to 13 years in prison. This conviction led to an explosion of violence in the streets of Barcelona.
Brought to power less than a year after the secession attempt, in particular thanks to the votes of the separatists, Pedro Sánchez has made appeasement in Catalonia one of his priorities since 2018.
In particular, in 2021 he pardoned the nine separatists sentenced to prison and his majority reformed the Penal Code the following year to remove the offense of sedition for which they had been prosecuted.