Madrid, May 30 (EFE) – The Spanish parliament Thursday approved a controversial amnesty law that will pardon Catalan separatists who faced charges of sedition and terrorism for their involvement in an unauthorized independence referendum and subsequent protests in Catalonia in 2017.
The law passed with 177 votes in favor – from the parties making up the country’s left-wing coalition government and its partners in parliament – and 172 against, from the right-wing opposition.
According to the Spanish government, the so-called amnesty law, agreed by the Socialist Party (PSOE) led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez with pro-independence parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia -ERC) and Junts per Catalunya, allows the country to move forward and draw a line under the most severe constitutional crisis Spain had faced since democracy was reestablished in the 1970s.
The new law will come into force when it is published in the official gazette, which is expected in a few days.
Judges will then have two months to apply it to the ongoing legal cases against Catalan separatist leaders.
The law’s approval was celebrated amid applause by the PSOE and its ally, the left-wing Sumar alliance, as well as the parties that support the coalition government.
The leader of the opposition conservative People’s Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, lamented that “it is not a good day for Spanish democracy”.
The law had been vetoed in the upper house, where the conservatives have a majority, in a symbolic gesture that could not stop the bill from being approved.
Nuñez Feijóo warned that “the defeat of the law will be a matter for the courts”, referring to the possibility that it could be suspended if the judges present a question of unconstitutionality in Spain or of incompatibility with the European legislation.
During the debate in parliament, the far-right Vox and left-wing Sumar exchanged insults and disqualifications, which forced the session to be suspended for a few minutes.
Junts and ERC warned that after the law’s approval, the next step would be an independence referendum in Catalonia.
The amnesty was decisive for Sánchez to achieve the necessary parliamentary support, including that of Catalan pro-independence parties, to secure a second term as prime minister.
Former Catalonia president and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after the unauthorized referendum in 2017 and recently moved to Vallespir, southern France, could return to Spain since the law sees all charges against people connected to the secessionist movement dropped.
The amnesty law does not include crimes qualified as terrorism under EU legislation.EFE
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