The policy of "concord" made the amnesty possible. It achieved its main political objective in the seventies: to allow a meeting place between the Spains torn apart for centuries and to build democracy by bringing together the heirs of the civil dispute. Those children of the victors and vanquished. But there were long moments of tug-of-war. Of these to whom only time ends up giving reason and who must be lamented for the ineffectiveness of reason and the great waste of time. Shameful folded flags, like the pardon of the Francoists for their crimes that was never debated. The only discussion was about which Democrats deserved amnesty or not. And practically everyone was reached except for the brave Unió Militar Democràtica (UMD), soldiers who had been expelled from the army for conspiring so that there would be democracy. Those imprisoned were released, but without re-entry. Moving – here yes – from theory to practice.
His exclusion from the first amnesty of 1976 had the consequence that this question remained open until the amnesty of 1977, in which he again stumbled upon the same problem, only resolved ten years later. "There is none today, we'll see later", they told them. And that they had even legalized the PCE. The protagonists of that time took Lenin's category of objective possibility for granted in this and other aspects. It is therefore appropriate, as we remember many times in this war room, not to sacralize the transition, exemplary although incomplete, nor the amnesty of 1977. The shadow of the UMD will always be there. This is how democracy began. Without paying tribute to the democratic military, who tried what was most difficult: to promote a democratic army and society. A great Carme Chacón did it 33 years later. With recognition by Congress, Military Cross and declaration by the Council of Ministers.
The amnesty, therefore, needs its gestation time so as not to make mistakes (not two months). The legislator must specify his legal regime so that it is constitutional. Likewise, he must conceptualize very well what oblivion consists of and its scope, what the facts were, when and which subjects it affects. And make it very clear that this is not a question of justice, but of political will. It is the Spanish society represented in national sovereignty, which is the Congress of Deputies, which freely decides to open a new period in which the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.
Amnesty, more than a legal figure, politically is the ultimate exercise of magnanimity. The one with the most political impact. For all this there can be no shadow that hides it. Amnesty should be called amnesty. And it is essential that it guarantees the non-recurrence of the process. From these bases, the amnesty is not only legal, but politically it is a State pact with constitutional fit. This is easier to explain, because the State pacts in Spain include all nationalists, of course. It is not amnesty for investiture, but amnesty for reunion.
This is the framework and not another: State pact. The amnesty will make Spain a much stronger democracy. It does not humiliate the generation of the transition, it remembers it; because the strong is stronger when it seeks "concord". "State Pact" and "constitutional fit", Alberto Núñez Feijóo said last week, acknowledging that there is a political problem in Catalonia and letting go of pressure not to remain unsettled in view of the new electoral cycle that is starting. Nothing to do with the PP of 2017. With those words there might have been neither 155 nor DUI. It was October 27. Please note this date again. Amnesty needs "pontiffs", true "bridge builders" in the most literal sense of the word, and there are those who make them weak. The PP also needs bridges.
Today, in Catalonia like every September 11, it is 50 years since the farewell to the presidential political poetry of Salvador Allende with which he opened the great open spaces. Politics are symbols that, like history, do not repeat themselves, but rhyme. Symbols like when only 15 days before the approval of the amnesty of 1977, a royal decree law gave the green light to the provisional re-establishment of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Yes, that's how it was, first was the Government, figuratively speaking. It was not amnesty for "investiture".
