The proposed Amnesty Law "did not decline last week" after the second vote that took place in the Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies, which is why the legal services advocate "returning it to the justice commission for approval of a new opinion on the text with a period of 15 days - extendable up to the maximum 30 days set by the regulations if the commission so requests - which would expire on February 21".
This is what the letter sent by the Chamber's lawyers says, which, without binding force, will be presented this Tuesday by the president of the Lower House, Francina Armengol, at the weekly meeting of the Congressional Board.
The legislative initiative was submitted to two overall votes in the plenary session last Tuesday: one on the opinion - in which an absolute majority was achieved in favor although a simple majority was enough - and a second given its organic rank, where an absolute majority was required. in favor and garnered an absolute majority against.
Since the recount ended, both the PP and Vox maintain that the amnesty law proposal declined because in the organic vote it was rejected by 179 votes, three above the absolute majority.
However, the lawyers reject that argument and defend that the rule should return to the justice commission for a second opportunity given that in the previous vote the ruling had been supported by an absolute majority by the plenary session. In this way, the legal services of the Lower House support the decision initially announced by the president of the Cortes, the socialist Francina Armengol.
In their writing, the legal services make it clear that in this case article 131.2 of the Regulations applies, which is what Armengol cited after the second vote on January 30. This provision establishes that if a project or organic law proposal does not obtain the favorable vote of the absolute majority in the final overall vote, the text "will be returned to the commission, which must issue a new opinion within a period of one month."
The other aspect up for debate is the deadline for the ruling. Something for which the lawyers are inclined to recommend the opening of a period of 15 calendar days, alleging that the initiative was processed urgently. So next February 21 would be the deadline for an agreement.
"It seems reasonable that the calculation is done in calendar days," adds the writing advanced by Europa Press. Given that this period would begin counting one day after the Board sets it this Tuesday, it would end on Wednesday, February 21, already after the Galician elections scheduled for the 18th of this month.
Regarding the requests of the PP and Vox, which maintain that the law finished its processing at the moment in which the Plenary Session rejected it by an absolute majority in the overall vote, the lawyers emphasize that the initiative was submitted to two different votes, as established in the Regulation, and that, addressing the thesis of these groups would be equivalent to rendering the first of them ineffective, projecting de facto the result of the second on the two."
"This de facto annulment of a vote lacks regulatory provision and would mean ignoring the will of the Plenary. Furthermore, considering that the vote on the opinion obtained 177 yeses, 172 noes and no abstentions, it could be argued that, in fact, it has been reached the absolute majority over the entire text", add the legal services.
"This approach, because it seeks an interpretation outside the Regulation, would be as erroneous as the one supported in the writings presented by the Popular Parliamentary Groups in Congress and Vox," the jurists argue.
