The alliance between the European People's Party, the liberal group and the extreme right has turned the - half-empty - hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg this afternoon into a real boxing ring between the defenders and detractors of the amnesty law that is currently being processed in Congress, an initiative that according to the Government, the socialists and the European left is "an internal constitutional matter" but which the former present as the beginning of the end not of Spain but of Europe. In the center of all attention, the European Commission, which today has put itself in profile and has avoided advancing any conclusions about the content of the law.
Determined to carry to the end the Popular Party's purpose of transferring the political struggle to the EU, the leader of the European popular group, Manfred Weber, has begun his intervention by citing the pronouncements of the General Council of the Judiciary and Felipe González against the amnesty and has assured that in Spain "the rule of law is being violated" with initiatives such as the amnesty law or the creation of parliamentary commissions agreed with Junts granted as a consequence of the "personal selfishness" of Pedro Sánchez, whom some MEPs have tried to equate with the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán or the Polish Mateusz Morawiecki.
"People in Spain expect a Europe that protects the rule of law, we must respond to all the protesters in Madrid," Weber claimed to the European Commission, while accusing the socialist group and the left of being "silent" about the situation in Spain while they denounce the situation in countries governed by conservatives. The debate, which lasted almost two hours, saw the participation of nearly 40 MEPs - half of them Spanish -, with a large presence of representatives of far-right and anti-European parties, who have warned Brussels against the "selective application" of the review of the rule of law situation in the EU. In the guest gallery, among others, was Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, with a privileged view of the seat occupied by Carles Puigdemont.
"Where before we said Poland and Hungary, today we say Spain," highlighted Adrián Vázquez, general secretary of Ciudadanos, on behalf of the European liberal group. "Today we debate the rule of law in Spain, a debate that I wish had never taken place but the latest events leave us no choice but to denounce them here," argued Vázquez, who has presented the amnesty project as "a tailor-made law written by those it will benefit". The European Commission should not trust the words of the Government ("we already know how Enrique Bolaños, the super minister, spends it," he said), has insisted the leader of C's, who has asked Brussels to use all its capacity to " influence" on Spain against the initiative.
The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, who was reprimanded by the Spanish Government for asking for a law even before its draft was presented to the Spanish Parliament on an issue that he considers to be exclusive national competence, keeps his cards. Although the text neutralizes the two possible points of friction of the amnesty with the European legislative framework by not referring at any time to the concept of lawfare and also making explicit that "crimes that affect the financial interests of the EU", something that sources community have evaluated positively, Reynders has avoided taking his foot off the accelerator, although he has not satisfied those who asked him for a clear statement on - or, more specifically, against - the measure.
"I can assure you that the Commission will continue to deal with this issue and will be attentive to its development," said the Belgian liberal, who has committed to studying "carefully, independently and objectively the amnesty law to ensure that it complies with the "European legislation", although he has pointed out that the Catalan conflict in itself "is an internal matter of Spain". His services, however, will not comment on the text until it has been debated, eventually amended and approved by Congress. .
"We will conclude our analysis when there is a final text approved by the Spanish Parliament" and "respecting the amendments that may arise," explained Reynders, who took advantage of his intervention to recall all the criticisms and recommendations included in the latest reports on the state of law in Spain, and to ask the Spanish political forces to renew the CGPJ and reform the system of election of judges, as well as the Government to take measures to ensure the independence of the Attorney General. "We appreciate the willingness of the Spanish authorities to establish a dialogue with the European Commission," she stressed. Disappointed by Reynders' response, Jorge Buxadé (Vox) has concluded that his intervention "makes it clear that right now we Spaniards are alone."
During the debate, Iratxe García, head of the European socialists, came out in force to turn around the EPP's accusations and assured that the "greatest attack" on the rule of law in Europe is not the Spanish Government or the law of amnesty but rather his "embrace of the extreme right", or that the PP does not "assume" the result of the July 23 elections. "While the PSOE has the support of 8 of 11 parties in Congress, you are more isolated every day because you are not able to see that your mimicry with the extreme right is devouring you," said García, who has defended the law of amnesty as a necessary formula to restore "coexistence" while it has disfigured the PP that does support tax amnesties.
It was announced as a debate but it was not exactly what we saw today in Strasbourg, where rather we witnessed a succession of political positions in the form of monologues pronounced at times loudly or with a strong charge of emotion, both in the words of the representatives of the PP, C's, PSOE or Vox, who spoke of a "coup d'état". Beyond positioning themselves for or against the amnesty, or considering it constitutional or unconstitutional, some and others have turned on the fan to air the less decorous aspects of recent Spanish politics as if they were in Congress and not in the European Parliament: the Kitchen case, the harsh police repression of 1-O, the Nazi insignia in front of the PSOE headquarters in Madrid, the Pegasus case, the PP's WhatsApp boasting of controlling room 2 of the Supreme Court "from behind" and accusations of treason.
Technically, the Spanish Government was not represented in this debate but by holding the rotating presidency of the Council, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Angeles Moreno, has taken advantage of her intervention to make it clear that "this is unequivocally an internal Spanish constitutional issue that must be debated." in the Spanish Parliament" and has assured that the text of the amnesty law "expressly safeguards European norms and values". Initially, the Government announced that it would send the Secretary of State for the EU, Pascual Navarro, to the debate but has finally opted for the more political profile of Moreno. Pedro Sánchez's executive takes Brussels' recommendations to improve the rule of law in Spain "very seriously" and "we are actively working to address them," Moreno assured.
Not Puigdemont but Toni Comín intervened on behalf of Junts, who did so to remind Weber that the German judges did not find a crime in the events covered by the amnesty. In statements to the Spanish press in Strasbourg shortly before the debate, the former president celebrated that "the great circus" organized "at the initiative of the EPP" had allowed the Catalan conflict to be discussed in the European Parliament. "They will help us to internationalize the conflict even more. We have been asking for a long time for this chamber to talk about the conflict between Catalonia and Spain," declared the Junts MEP, who believes that the debate can make his MEP colleagues see that there is a "politicization" of the Spanish justice system. ERC MEP Diana Ribas, on the other hand, regretted the "instrumentalization" of the European Parliament after the debate, reports the ACN agency. The institution "does not want" "national issues" to be brought to the plenary session, but the right acts "frustrated" because "it has not been able to govern."
