AGI – The right and the Spanish justice system are building a wall against the concession plan Amnesty for Catalan independence activists the outgoing prime minister, the socialist Pedro Sanchezwho needs his votes to stay in government while I Vox nationalists They riot the squares of the country’s major cities to oppose what they would consider real treason.
The risk of a return to the ballot box
Sanchez, whose party came second in the July 23 general election, has until November 27 to win the confidence of parliament and stay in power. If he does not succeed in doing this before the deadline, new elections will automatically be called.
In order to obtain the indispensable support of the Catalan independence parties, without which a majority in the chamber is not possible, Sánchez accepted their request to draft an amnesty law for the separatists persecuted by the Spanish justice system, especially for those convicted in this context failed attempt to secede from Catalonia in 2017.
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Carles Puigdemont
The ball is in Puigdemont’s hands
After long negotiations, Sanchez received the support of the seven MPs Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC), a moderate separatist group that governs the region and now only needs to secure the support of the seven parliamentarians Junts to Cataloniathe party of Carles Puigdemont.
The former Catalan president, who fled to Belgium after the failed secession, was also indicted by the Spanish justice system last Monday for his role in the 2019 protests against the conviction of the independence leaders who remained in their home country, who received prison sentences of up to 20 years was sentenced to 13 years. “We are in the countdown to the pact, the final stage of a difficult negotiation that will allow us to enter a new phase,” he said Jaume Asensone of the leading socialist negotiators.
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Vox leader Santiago Abascal
Abascal calls for “permanent mobilization”
The controversial bill sparked an uprising in the right-wing opposition. “You will not silence us,” thundered the head of the People’s Party, Alberto Nùnez Feijòo, who came first in the July elections but was unable to muster a sufficient majority to take office in Moncloa. The leader of Vox, Santiago AbascalFor his part, took part in a demonstration against the amnesty in Madrid on Monday evening, which ended with the intervention of the police, who fired tear gas to prevent thousands of demonstrators from approaching the headquarters of the Socialist Party.
The protest was repeated the following night, once again affecting major Spanish cities, starting with Barcelona and Valencia. “Puigdemont, in prison!” and “Sanchez, traitor!” were among the slogans chanted from the squares. Abascal called for “permanent, constant and growing mobilization.” Another large demonstration is planned in the Spanish capital on Saturday, November 18th.
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Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez
In addition to the right hand, the referees are also on the field. The General Council of Justice (CGPJ), the collegial body that appoints judges, agreed with the Conservatives to issue a statement denouncing that the amnesty project could “degrade the rule of law” and “turn it into a bargaining chip.”
After coming to power in 2018, less than a year after the secession attempt, Sanchez made detente in Catalonia a priority. In 2021, the prime minister pardoned the nine prison-sentenced separatist leaders and the following year his majority reformed the criminal code to abolish the crime of sedition for which they had been charged. The secessionists who fled abroad, especially Puigdemont, are still wanted by the Iberian justice system.
Urban guerrilla war in Madrid
There is now fear that nationalist protest will gain the upper hand increasingly violent characters. On Tuesday evening, at least 7,000 far-right militants were mobilized by Revuelta, a platform linked to Vox-affiliated student circles.
Around 300 riot police stood behind barricades erected at a safe distance to better protect the Socialist Party headquarters, according to the newspaper El País, and were forced to break up the demonstration with tear gas and rubber bullets in response to rockets they fired at the demonstrators. In the Iberian capital, the protest degenerated into an urban guerrilla war, while fringe groups of the march managed to get close to the Moncloa headquarters.
In its statement on the unrest, the PP avoided explicitly condemning the attacks on party headquarters. The spokesman for the outgoing government emphasized: Isabel Rodríguezthe People’s Party “ceases to be a state party.”
“We don’t want to end up like Venezuela”
Contacted by AGI, Carlos AstizWriter and commentator on the nationalist right, expressed the dissent of the demonstrators who “don’t want to end up like Venezuela!”
“The outgoing prime minister (Sanchez) got on his knees and begged the separatists to return to the government,” he said. “They have begun a process of destroying national unity and democracy in Spain, but then all Spaniards will pay for this erasure.”
After the task assigned to Feijòò, whose party had come first in the July elections, failed with the two unsuccessful votes in the Cortes on September 27th and 29th, King Felipe VI handed over. the baton passes to Sanchez, who now has less than three weeks to solve the mystery.
© Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP
Riots during the nationalist demonstration in Madrid
The fear of a Spanish Capitol
“The far right is trying to spread lies in Spain and elsewhere,” he commented to AGI Steven FortiProfessor of contemporary history at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and author of numerous publications, including a book on the new European right, “Extrema Derecha 2.0”.
“The accusations against Sánchez of being a ‘traitor’, of selling himself to the separatists and of wanting the destruction of the country, do not exist in heaven or on earth.” “Spain,” he continued, “is not there yet sick man of Europe and certainly not Venezuela.” However, he added: “I note that the Spanish right has definitely become Trumpist: it calls for demonstrations, supports them and takes part in demonstrations that attack the headquarters of the Socialist Party . They are sowing fears about a possible government agreement between Sanchez and the independents.” . They want a Capitol Spanish Hill!” warned the scholar.
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