The amnesty law will be the beginning of the end of democracy". With this forceful sentence, the Professional Association of the Magistrature, the majority association of judges, rejects the effects that the approval of the amnesty law would have. Although from the conservative groups of judges, and not so conservative - these in a less public way -, for weeks they have been warning of the risk that this law poses for the separation of powers, this week the judicial pressure against the measure since it has been seen that the agreement between PSOE and the pro-independence parties is getting closer. It is a fact that once the amnesty is approved, all the pressure will be on the judiciary, because it will be the judges who will have to apply it case by case.
Among the judges, there is anger to see that all the cases and investigations opened since 2017 for multiple crimes, such as the embezzlement of public funds, will remain on wet paper. The current acting president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, defends that the law aims at coexistence in Catalonia, but certain judicial sectors see it as an attack on judicial power and independence.
In this regard, the conservative sector of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has forced a full session for Monday to try to approve a statement against the amnesty, which it defines as an "abolition of the rule of law in Spain". Progressives accuse them of using the governing body of judges as a "marketing".
The Supreme Court is already studying how to be able to act in view of a law still without knowing its literalness, but they already suspect that it may have airs of unconstitutionality. Therefore, all the pressure will be focused on the Constitutional Court. The body chaired by Cándido Conde-Pumpido and with a progressive majority will have the last word on the constitutionality of the law and its resolution will mark the way for the rest of the judges to apply it.
Court sources acknowledge that since the amnesty began to be discussed, the pressure, especially through various public statements by political leaders, is increasing. And the focus will go even further if the reform proposed by the PP of the Senate regulations, where it has an absolute majority, is approved to modify article 133 and allow the Bureau, controlled by the PP, to decide whether or not to apply the procedure urgency to the law proposals. With this, those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo intend to delay until the spring the entry into force of the law that will be processed urgently in Congress and that without the modification of the regulations in the Upper House could be ready in a month since your registration. Despite this, the Central Government can appeal against the reform and request a precautionary suspension from the TC, but sources in the court explain that it is not clear that the suspension can be granted. In any case, this will mean more focus on the TC, which tends to be looked at with more political than legal eyes.
But it is not only the judges who are disturbed by the eventual amnesty. Between the unions of the National Police and the Civil Guard there is also a noise that does not please the ears of the Ministry of the Interior. The department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska is following very closely in the footsteps of the majority organizations – Police Justice (Jupol) and Civil Guard Justice (Jucil) – which for the last five years have led the offensive against the progressive Government. In an unusual decision, at the beginning of the week, the management of the Civil Guard brought to the attention of its legal services a tweet by Jucil in which it accused the acting head of the Executive of "felony". A movement that, far from cowing the majority association in the armed institute, has given it wings to deploy all its machinery, very active on social networks, to denounce "the humiliation" of the agents.
"Serious nonsense", "direct attack on democracy" or "absolute contempt" are the adjectives used by the main unions in the communiques they have sent, collecting the sentiments, they say, of their affiliates. The historic Unified Police Union (SUP) considers that the amnesty law "attempts" against the fundamental principles of the Constitution and "undermines" the pillars of the rule of law. But above all, they denounce the Spanish Government's attempt to "use the police as a tool to whitewash this attack", for including the police as possible beneficiaries of the law. "We do not want to be put in the same bag as urban terrorists, seditious, embezzlers and people who disobey the judicial authority", they warn. "Amnesty means telling the person who has committed a crime that the State has done something wrong. Where is the justice for these policemen?” they lament.
For Jupol, who usually uses a much more belligerent tone, what is known about the proposed law represents "absolute contempt" for the 10,000 police who traveled to Catalonia in October 2017, during the moments of more tension in the process, and in 2019, due to the riots following the Supreme Court ruling. According to the union, the agents "defended the unity of Spain in terrible working conditions, crammed into boats, expelled from hotels and with absolute lack of protection by the various governments".
After it transpired that the PSOE's idea was to set Sánchez's investiture session at the end of next week, several organizations decided to announce protests. Some such as SUP or AUGC plan to gather in Barcelona on Friday 10 November. Others such as Jupol or Jucil will do it in front of the Ministry of the Interior on Monday, but after warnings from the Interior that they could be breaking the principle of political neutrality, they have decided to convene under the slogan "for equality, dignified retirement and the increase in diets". Trade union sources acknowledge, even so, that the voices against the amnesty will be heard.
