The House of Representatives approves the amnesty law and Catalan nationalists are already thinking about independence

In the second attempt to obtain a parliamentary “yes”, the amnesty law, which… Pedro Sanchez The Catalan independence movement promisedn approved This Thursday in the House of Representatives Spain.

With a majority of 178 votes in favor and 172 against. The law will now be discussed in the SenateWhere the Popular Party has a majority – contrary to the procedure that Sanchez agreed to with the separatists in exchange for their support for his re-election – I will try to delay it as long as possible.

The most controversial law proposed in the four months this Legislature has been in operation has finally been approved, one day after it was announced Catalonia is scheduled to go to the polls on May 12.

And with the alarming statement issued by the Catalan independence parties on Thursday in Parliament: After the amnesty, They will go to a self-determination referendum This allows Catalans to choose whether or not they want to secede from the rest of Spain.

The amnesty law, which raised many questions, had already been discussed in Congress at the end of January, but the same beneficiaries of the measure stopped it in voting because they considered it Not fully protected To the hundreds of people who could be charged with crimes for their cooperation in the illegal referendum and unilateral declaration of independence in 2017.

he Electoral progress Announced on Wednesday by state President Pere Aragones, it raises uncertainty over the relationship between the coalition government of the PSOE and Somar led by Pedro Sánchez with the pro-independence parties that supported his inauguration in November last year.

And Urges to return to SpainAnd the possibility of him running for the presidency of Catalonia again, carles Puigdemont, The former president who ruled from the state palace between January 2016 and October 2017, when he unilaterally declared the independence of Catalonia and He fled to Belgium To avoid imprisonment, trial and conviction.

The Junts per Catalunya party, Puigdemont's party, was the party that approved the amnesty and then voted against this bill because They couldn't guarantee that their leader would be safe Of possible future charges.

Puigdemont has lived in Belgium for six and a half years. Amnesty law I will let you come back to their territories despite the deadlines for its entry into force They will not allow him to be in Catalonia Because when the new government that emerges from the ballot boxes on May 12 must take office.

The first bill was introduced by the PSOE in November last year. At the end of January, a vote against Junts forced the bill back to the Justice Committee of Congress, where the PSOE and the two Catalan independence parties – Esquerra Republica and Junts – are located. They negotiated until the last day of the deadline.

Finally, a week ago, the Justice Commission approved the final opinion that was approved today, Thursday, in the House of Representatives.

To ensure that no unpleasant surprises occur, Gantz called for amendments to protect potential crimes of terrorism, treason, and embezzlement – which some judges are investigating with Puigdemont in their view – so that if it is considered, they will be sentenced according to European regulations and not according to what the Spanish Penal Code indicates.

“We practiced politics. The spokesman for the Socialist Parliament, Patxi Lopez, who had to defend the amnesty law that the PSOE agreed with the Catalans, described it as “courageous and controversial.”

He added: “Politics is about providing alternatives.” Lopez stressed, “This means working to stop the escalation of conflicts.”

He stressed that “with the amnesty law, we close the circle of political decisions through which we seek to end the time of confrontation and open the time of reconciliation and reunification.”

During the discussion in the special session this Thursday, MP Josep Maria Cervera, from the city of Gontz, acknowledged that: “The historical political conflict between the Catalan and Spanish states It still exists“.

“What amnesty does is simply put back into politics what belongs in politics,” Cervera said. It has certainly opened a window of opportunity to negotiate, from one party to another, about the future of Catalonia, the Catalonia that we want to be free.”

to her role, Esquerra Republica did not hide its intentionsRepresentative Pilar Vallogera said: “We will not stop until we exercise the right to self-determination.”

“This amnesty is for people who have put their faces and bodies. Not for people who have first and last names and who can lead parties,” Vallogeira justified. In reference to Puigdemont Without naming her.

He added: “It is important to be frank. We know what the basic structure of the Spanish state is. The entire state response was excessive because there was no crime, and the amnesty fixed the lack of crime. There was no coup. There was no embezzlement. “There was no terrorism and this law is recognition.”

The People's Party and Vox were the two main parties They voted against From the amnesty law.

“You are attending The first major law of the legislature and the last“Most likely,” predicted the head of the People's Party and main leader of the opposition, Alberto Nuñez Viejo.

“At first there would be no amnesty. After that, terrorism would be no amnesty. Then terrorism would be pardoned, but only a little. And there would be no amnesty for high treason andFinally, they granted amnesty for terrorism, embezzlement, corruption, and high treason. They accepted everything“Nunez Viejo commented sarcastically.

“Don't you dare sell us reconciliation because… This law divides Spain into two parts It divides Catalonia into two parts.”

“It is not reconciliation. This is submission“, shooting.

He announced: “This is the law The Senate nominee will not pass. This law will not pass through the justice filter. This law will not pass through the filter of the institutions that must evaluate it. “They can't ignore the Constitution like that.”

“Above all, it will not pass through the street filter. They lost the street” – said the head of PP.

For Santiago Abascal, leader of the Vox party, the parliamentary session is this Thursday It was 'shameful, unfair and undeserving'.

He described the amnesty law as: “The greatest act of corruption” by Pedro Sanchez. “Vote buying is for personal interest,” he explained.

“Today (this Thursday) this Congress turns politicians, as long as they are leftists or separatists, into… A privileged class, in an unpunished classAbascal said.

When he was leaving the Assembly, he saw that the entire government should resign and call new elections.

Electoral progress in Catalonia It caused La Moncloa to decide not to continue to address public budgets state for this year.

Because the Esquerra Republicana and Junts parties, two of the allies who gave their supportive – and indispensable – votes to elect Pedro Sánchez as president once again, They will enter the fray on May 12 This electoral confrontation could have an impact on the government's legislative proposals. Sanchez has already conceded to an extension of this year's budgets and ordered work to begin on the 2025 budgets.

However, doubts about the support that future government initiatives may gain are injecting a dose of weakness into the legislature that began in November last year and is supported by seven parties that include Catalan and Basque independents, both right and left. .

The Basque Country will also hold elections in just over a month, which will also be held Two allies of Sánchez will compete: the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and AH Beldo.

The approval of the amnesty law on Thursday comes just four years after the declaration of the Covid state of alarm announced by Pedro Sánchez on March 14, 2020.

This is the quarantine in Spain It lasted a hundred days What Spaniards witnessed during the first months of the pandemic is very present these days: reports of possible corruption due to the illegal payment of huge commissions to buy masks, which has splintered the government and the main opposition party, a shootout that heightens the confusion and uncertainty over Sánchez's presidency.