The invocation of the Rule of Law and the Constitution will be the basis of the Amnesty law that is expected to reach the register of the Congress of Deputies today. Last night the representatives of PSOE and Junts worked hard to close this key text to reach the pact for the investiture.
According to sources familiar with the draft that is being finalized between both parties, the text, which will reach Congress with the endorsement of all allied groups, will refer to the restoration of coexistence as an essential purpose of the norm. A purpose that incorporates it into the very purpose of the 1978 Constitution.
For this same purpose, the text refers to the precedent of the 1977 Amnesty Law, the validity of which has been ratified in multiple rulings of the Constitutional Court throughout these years.
The scope of the law, which will avoid indicating which cases would be deactivated if approved, would in any case affect those convicted in the special case of the Supreme Court but also the majority of the cases pending trial, including those of the Court of Accounts and the summaries opened in cases such as those of the CDR and Tsunami Democràtic. These two cases are being pursued in the National Court and the private accusations, as well as the prosecution, maintain their accusations of terrorism. The amnesty would also benefit the cases opened in various courts in Catalonia against the actions of police officers on October 1, 2017.
One of the fundamental elements of the law will be the explanatory statement in which both parties worked to agree on a wording defined by its neutrality. It does not praise the events that occurred since the beginning of the events of the process as the independence supporters would have liked, but it does not define them as crimes either. However, the law includes all the rulings known so far on these facts.
In this way, Pedro Sánchez advances towards his re-election as President of the Government, with the intention of winning the investiture next week in a first vote, by absolute majority, which in Congress contemplates that it can be held as early as Thursday the 9th or Friday the 10th. of November.
The PSOE negotiating team, led to complete the Catalan file by the acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, is now finalizing the conversations with Junts per Catalunya to seal a bill on amnesty for those accused of the process, with the intention to immediately file it in the Congressional record.
Bolaños himself is in Barcelona to seal this agreement with the formation of former president Carles Puigdemont. The white smoke, if nothing goes wrong as planned, it is a matter of hours.
The intention of the PSOE is that this legislative initiative be joint by all, or at least by the majority of the groups that could join the bloc of yes to the investiture. On Tuesday afternoon, Sánchez himself held a telephone conversation with the current president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to unlock “the latest details of the future amnesty law” with Esquerra.
The PSOE and ERC agreed, on Tuesday night, in considering “their expectations met and their political principles regarding this rule satisfied”, in order to be able to register the bill in Congress, before the investiture debate takes place.
And now Bolaños is trying to close the agreement on this matter with Junts, after the organization secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, staged with Puigdemont in Brussels, last Monday, the progress of the negotiation “in the right direction.”
According to what the PSOE leadership defends, even among the most suspicious socialist sectors, the rule will be perfectly constitutional. And that it will be shielded from the foreseeable appeals of the right before the Constitutional Court.
In his argument in favor of the amnesty before the federal committee of the PSOE, last Saturday, Sánchez warned that it is his responsibility to promote this initiative to "continue along the path of reunion" and move towards the "definitive overcoming of the conflict" in Catalonia. Without the participation of the Popular Party, immersed in a harsh offensive against the amnesty from the streets and institutions.
The socialist leader regretted that for more than twenty years, with José María Aznar, the PP's line of action has consisted of "adding fuel to the fire" in Catalonia. “They hope that this fire will burn the progressives and serve as fuel for them to regain power,” he warned. Now also with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the head of the PP.
Making a virtue of necessity, as Sánchez justified, after the 23-J elections there are 56 deputies in Congress who "demand an amnesty to support the investiture." He thus referred to the seats held by Sumar, ERC, Junts, EH Bildu and the PNV, although with the support of the BNG as well the figure would rise to 57 deputies. Together with the 121 seats of the Socialist Group, the amnesty would be guaranteed, in its processing and approval, by an absolute majority of 178 deputies.
And for the investiture, the PSOE does not rule out the support of the Canary Coalition for a yes to Sánchez bloc that would thus reach 179 votes. More than enough to win the no bloc that makes up the PP, the extreme right of Vox and UPN, which total 171 deputies.
“We are not going to take this step alone,” Sánchez said before the federal committee. “There is a large majority in Parliament that supports this initiative, which asks us to move in this direction. And there is an overwhelming majority in Catalan society that wants to turn the page,” warned the socialist leader.
The PSOE's plan is to immediately register the amnesty law proposal in Congress, even today or tomorrow. And it is not ruled out that tomorrow the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, will announce the date of the investiture debate for next week. “Everything will go very quickly,” the socialists insist. That they definitely step on the accelerator.
