An agreement for the entire legislature, not only for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government. This is how the number 3 of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, has defined the document signed today in Brussels with the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, which includes, on the one hand, the terms of the future amnesty law and, on the other, a collaboration pact policy "for the next four years", during which both parties commit to working to give "stability" to Spain.
The agreement "comes at a key moment for the country" and "constitutes a historic opportunity to resolve a conflict that can and should only be resolved through politics," Cerdán emphasized. Despite the logical discrepancies, he said, between two parties as different as the PSOE and Junts, "we will be able to achieve meeting points for the well-being of citizens and solve problems." "Six years have passed since 2017", when the referendum was held that the Constitutional Court declared illegal", and "the underlying conflict in Catalonia remains unresolved". This "is the way to do it, with generosity and high-mindedness ".
Although the content of the future amnesty law is "agreed upon" between Junts and PSOE, the text must now be analyzed by the rest of the political groups that plan to support it and only then will it be registered in Congress. The bill does not cite specific events or people but "it will cover the people who have been related to the process from its inception until yesterday, last night, when we closed the agreement," said Cerdán, who later pointed out that it will cover events that occurred "directly or indirectly related" to the independence process between 2012 (the date on which the Parliament endorsed the call for the 2014 consultation) and 2023. "From there, it will be the judges who will analyze each case and each personal situation".
PSOE and Junts have committed to "talk and negotiate" so that "in the next legislature, conditions of stability are created" that offer Catalan society and the rest of Spaniards "a new horizon" in which differences are resolved. within the framework of politics". The agreement signed today establishes a "work methodology" for the next four years through the formation of thematic "working groups" to channel the different discussions. From now on "it is the candidate himself", Pedro Sánchez, who must speak with the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, and "tell her that she has the votes, because she is the one who has to call the plenary session" of the investiture, he said. the socialist negotiator, who arrived in Brussels on Sunday night to complete the final stretch of negotiations with the post-convergents. Although Armengol has enabled all holidays and weekends until the end of the month, the forecast is that Sánchez's investiture debate will take place next week.
The signing of the documents by Cerdán and Turull took place in the privacy of the Sofitel hotel in the European neighborhood of Brussels, where the socialist envoy has been staying these days, with no cameras other than those of the political parties themselves, although he has not any image has transcended for the moment. The signing of the agreement between PSOE and Junts is the culmination of several days of intense technical discussions on the scope of the law held in a climate of tension and marked by external events such as the decision of the National Court to charge Puigdemont and Marta Rovira for the Tsunami Democràtic case but also due to the more choreographic problems derived from the need for Junts to clearly stage that theirs has been a different negotiation than the one that the PSOE had with ERC.
In the final stretch of the talks, the European Commission reacted to the pressures of the PP and C's and to the citizen complaints received about the amnesty law and yesterday afternoon sent a letter to the acting Government to request "more detailed information" about the future legislation, "particularly on the personal, material and temporal scope" it may have. “The European Commission remains committed to evaluating and defending fundamental values in all member states” and will continue “working with the Spanish authorities to ensure respect for the rule of law,” says the European Commissioner for Justice, the Belgian liberal. Didier Reynders, who addressed the acting ministers of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños and Pilar Llop.
Bolaños responded to Reynders last night to explain that he was knocking on the wrong door. As the Government is in office, "any bill that may be registered in the Congress of Deputies will come from the parliamentary groups and not from the Council of Ministers", although they offer to explain its content to Brussels when it is presented, as well as to detail in an upcoming meeting "the Government's commitment to definitively overcoming a serious constitutional, political and social crisis" that was experienced in Catalonia.
