Carles Puigdemont, fugitive from Spanish justice, Catalan separatist leader, and MEP, has finally received his long-desired amnesty—at least for now.
Spain’s controversial amnesty law grants immunity from punishment to Puigdemont, other leaders of the 2017 illegal referendum on the independence of Catalonia from Spain, and a wide range of other crimes and criminals simply for being Catalan separatists. It finally jumped its last legislative hurdle yesterday, approved by Spain’s congress of deputies, 177 to 172.
“We warned the country that the worst of Sánchez was about to arrive. And it has arrived. Now a shadow of suspicion of economic, and not just political, corruption hangs over the government, the party, and the president’s family,” said Santiago Abascal, president of VOX.
As the ministers of the current socialist-led coalition government rose to give their vote orally, members of VOX’s congressional block responded with “Traitor!”
Unsurprisingly, the atmosphere in the chamber was tense. Sánchez did not even attend the congressional session. Spaniards have been demonstrating against the amnesty since November, when current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez formed a government with the support of the Catalan separatist parties in parliament, promising them amnesty for Puigdemont and others.
Abascal was also referring to two multi-million euro corruption cases under investigation, concerning Sánchez’s wife and his former transportation minister respectively. “We do not know if they are also going to grant amnesty to their ministers, their own relatives, or if the Lord Sánchez intends to self-amnesty,” he declared.
But serious judicial questions hang over the law and its enforcement will likely be suspended. The center-right Partido Popular (PP) has promised to appeal it before the constitutional court, as have all the regional governments where the party rules. It is expected that the Spanish courts will submit questions to the European Court of Justice as well, which will paralyze the law’s enforcement. How quickly the judicial wrangling will take remains to be seen.
The amnesty is the only major piece of legislation Sánchez has been able to pass in the ten months of this current legislature, despite his best efforts. He has suffered four major parliamentary losses so far. Even Sumar, the junior party in government, has refused to support socialist initiatives.
The latest defeat took place last week, when a bill to curb prostitution that would have criminalized buying sex lacked the support of Sumar, which stands in favor of the legalization of prostitution. Two days later, it pulled at the last minute an important urban land planning law that addressed significant issues regarding the country’s lack of affordable housing, uncertain if the bill would pass. Sumar and the independentists had already said they would vote against it.
As the major opposition party, the PP, has been critical of certain aspects of the proposed housing law and evasive as to whether it would let the bill pass, which it could have done by simply abstaining in the vote. But the PP had warned Sánchez at the beginning of the legislature not to expect its automatic support when his policial associates abandoned him. Sánchez had not negotiated the land planning law with the PP. The separatist parties, too, had warned that each and every legislative initiative would have to be negotiated in real time.
Sánchez’s extreme weakness was already on display in January when he did not even dare to present a new budget, knowing he would be hard pressed to meet the demands of Sumar and independentists. Under Spanish law, in such a case, the previous year’s budget can simply be extended for another year.
Ungovernable, yes. But is that Spain or Sánchez?
