The Cercle d'Economia has approved an opinion document in which it chooses to give “very conditional” support to the amnesty for those accused as a result of the process and the referendum of October 1, 2017. The opinion will be announced today , according to what the sources consulted have assured this newspaper.
The economic forum chaired by Jaume Guardiola considers that the amnesty, or a similar measure that would not be explicitly defined as such, can contribute to the improvement of the political climate in Spain and Catalonia only if certain parameters are met and are not limited exclusively to the negotiation to obtain the votes of the independence movement for the investiture of the socialist Pedro Sánchez.
The debate in the Cercle board has been intense, as some of its members were especially reluctant to support the measure. For example, José María Lassalle, former Secretary of State for Culture in the government of Mariano Rajoy, and José Manuel González Páramo, former executive advisor of the ECB and BBVA, participate in the Cercle board. As a member of the board pointed out, “the document does not reflect the position of any of its members; “It is the result of a minimum consensus.”
Firstly, that the grace measure is conditional on the independence movement's renunciation of unilateralism. That is, to repeat the dynamic that culminated in the clash between the State and the Generalitat on October 1 and the following weeks.
A sector of the independence movement, like the former president of the Generalitat and top leader of Junts per Catalunya, Carles Puigdemont, who from Belgium, has not renounced that unilateralism. Yes, Oriol Junqueras, the president of the other pro-independence party, ERC, did, which already took advantage of the pardon approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez in the last legislature.
Likewise, the board of directors of Cercle defends that a measure of the magnitude of the amnesty should be agreed between the two major parties, the PSOE, which is the one that is now contemplating it in the framework of the negotiations for the investiture of Sánchez as president of the Government and the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which has openly declared itself against it and has announced a harsh campaign against the approval of the measure. In view of the position of the Popular Party, this consideration of the Barcelona forum is far from any possibility of materialization in the current political moment.
The document presented today also reflects on the need for the agreement reached to be of the highest technical level and not to be questioned by the Spanish judicial bodies, especially the Constitutional Court. The forum also raises the need to face the redefinition of the territorial problem, linked to the Statute and the financing system.
With the presentation of its opinion document today, Cercle will be the third association in the economic sphere of Catalonia to speak out in favor of the grace measure, the second publicly. The first organization to take sides was Foment del Treball, the large employers' association chaired by Josep Sánchez Llibre and which has been holding discreet conversations for months with Puigdemont, whom the business leader has visited on several occasions in Brussels, and with members of the Government. However, so far, Sánchez Llibre has not made public statements on the matter. Yesterday he acknowledged in Rac1 that these meetings had taken place, which he clarified are being held with all political forces.
In the conversations between the leaders of Junts and Foment, already before the general elections on July 23, Puigdemont outlined what would be his basic lines of the current negotiation: amnesty, defense of Catalan and economic improvements, but not the referendum of independence. Foment, for its part, seeks to create a political climate from this pact that favors economic stability and, above all, facilitates the return of companies that moved their headquarters outside of Catalonia in the turbulent days after the October 1 referendum.
A few days ago, the small business association Pimec, through its president, Antoni Cañete, also spoke out in favor of amnesty and resolving political problems in that area and not in the judicial field. Cañete also asked for the renunciation of any action outside legality.
