The socialist group, as revealed this Sunday by the Popular Party, registered yesterday Saturday in the Congress of Deputies a request to extend the processing period of the Amnesty law in the Justice commission, which indicates that the negotiation with Junts per Catalonia to approve the criminal oblivion will almost certainly take at least another two weeks.
After Junts' refusal to support the norm on January 30 in the plenary session of the Lower House, the text of the law returned to the previous process, to the commission, with a period of 15 days that expires this Wednesday, February 21 for a new opinion to be approved. If the Congress Board, as planned, grants the extension, the deadline for approving a new text will be March 7, so that the law would be debated and voted on in the plenary session that begins on March 12.
Last week, there was a meeting in Barcelona that lasted about two hours between socialists and post-convergents to try to resolve the situation, but it did not work and the forces found that their positions were far apart. At that meeting, the PSOE, represented by Minister Félix Bolaños and Ferraz's organizational secretary, Santos Cerdán, refused to touch the text that went to the plenary session two weeks ago, considering that it already complies with the premise of not leaving any accused of the process outside the amnesty and offered as an alternative to modify the Criminal Procedure Law. On behalf of Junts were the general secretary, Jordi Turull, and the spokesperson in Congress, Miriam Nogueras.
JxCat sources pointed these days to the possibility that there was some movement by the socialists after the Galician elections, which were held yesterday. In the coming days it will be seen if there is any room for this.
The post-convergents want more security and that with the drafting of the norm it is clear that those investigated in the cases that are being investigated in the National Court, for the Tsunami Democràtic protests, and in court number 1 of Barcelona, for the alleged Russian plot of the process, benefit from criminal oblivion. They are being investigated for crimes of terrorism and high treason. Carles Puigdemont's party also wants to extend the period of application of the amnesty until November 2011, to guarantee that those prosecuted in the Court of Accounts for the external action of the Generalitat are also covered.
These two issues are the main obstacles that separate Junts and PSOE, although there are more elements to take into account in the equation and other actors involved. Esquerra Republicana considers that the text is already good and does not want any more changes. The Republicans' argument is that there will never be a draft that is perfect.
In that sense, President Pere Aragonès asked this Sunday from the Palau de la Generalitat that the law be approved this week in the Congress of Deputies and has urged the PP to join the agreement if it wants “solutions” for Catalonia. Thus, he has assured that the norm is already “solid and robust” and has asserted that “every day that passes without amnesty is a day that the repression continues”, with the situation of the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, and the leaders Republicans Josep Maria Jové and Josep Lluís Salvadó, who will be tried in April for the preparations for 1-O, as an example.
