Junts gives the first whistle to the government after supporting the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez. Carles Puigdemont's party announced this Friday that it will vote against the three royal decrees that the government will bring to the plenary session next Wednesday: the one that contains a large part of the anti-crisis package that expired on December 31st Extended in 2024, the Omnibus Decree includes other measures related to receiving European funds – for example, the digital transformation of the judiciary – and a third related to the Ministry of Labor. Junts has confirmed that he will vote against the texts, which will be debated in a parliamentary plenary session next week alongside the overall amendments to the amnesty law, arguing that the judicial decree “jeopardizes” the application of the amnesty law. to those persecuted by the process and because they consider that part of the content of the parliamentary initiatives encroaches on the powers of the Generalitat and exacerbates its “underfunding”, according to sources in the Independence Party.
Junts confirmed his rejection this morning after the organizing secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, and the secretary general of the Independence Party, Jordi Turull, met in Barcelona this Thursday without reaching an agreement, as La Vanguardia reported. and this newspaper has confirmed. The independence supporters base their opposition on the fact that the texts have not been agreed and also refuse to treat them as a bill – an option that the government can grant in plenary to introduce changes afterwards. Junts calls on the executive to immediately withdraw the texts and write new ones. Sources in the Socialist leadership insist that talks will continue. “The last legislative session was based on dialogue, dialogue, dialogue and this one will be no different. There are no absolute majorities and that is normal. Without drama,” they claim from the PSOE. Government sources add that they will continue negotiations but will not withdraw the decrees.
The problems that the Independentists are confronting their opposition with, and that they have already threatened, are essentially three. First, they focus on the fact that the Decree on the Digital Transformation of the Judiciary may “jeopardize” the application of the amnesty law, since the changes provided for in Article 43.bis would lead to paralyzing judicial proceedings if a judge files a lawsuit Preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). However, despite Junts' rejection, the decree does not bring any changes in terms of the level of clemency, as the jurisprudence is well established in both European and Community law and the courts always put proceedings on hold when there is a question. an adverse matter affecting you. What happens is that this jurisprudence has not yet been reflected in a Spanish law.
Secondly, the Independence Party rejects the other two decrees because they contain measures that, in their opinion, would exacerbate what they consider to be the inadequate financing of the Generalitat by considering the transfer of services without additional financial resources. And they are witnessing an “invasion of the powers” in matters that fall under the auspices of the Catalan government. The sources consulted by Junts insist that Sánchez's executive showed them the royal decrees without any prior room for negotiation.
The position against the independents jeopardizes the extension of the anti-crisis measures adopted on December 27, since for now the PP has not made it clear what the meaning of its vote will be, and even if the government receives the support of the rest of the parties, less Vox doesn't give you any numbers either. Social protection measures that will remain in force in 2024 include subsidies for public transport, the reduction of VAT to 0% for basic foodstuffs and 10% for electricity and gas, or the suspension of evictions for “households” in need of protection and There are still five days left before the ratification plenary session, so negotiations could reverse the Independents' rejection. In previous and similar situations, such as the formation of the congressional executive committee, Junts kept track practically until the plenary session began .Government sources assure that the executive hopes for a rebalancing of the situation, but assumes that uncertainty could remain until the last minute.
The omnibus decree, which concerns the judiciary, includes commitments made with Brussels for 2023 that were still outstanding due to the early elections. It was dependent on its approval before December 31 that Spain could collect the fourth round of Next Generation Funds worth 10,000 million euros, so the Executive decided to pass the laws in which these measures would be incorporated and regulated. to park through two royal decrees – which are processed more quickly – one was approved before the elections, the other on December 19th. As far as the judiciary is concerned, the omnibus decree includes digital and procedural efficiency measures, which in many cases are already widely used in the usual practice of the courts, but which have not yet been regulated, as Europe had requested.
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In practice, the decree does not change anything regarding the amnesty law, because although this matter has not yet been regulated in a specific Spanish norm, in addition to the fact that the case law is well established, this suspension is also contained in Article 23 of the Statute of the ECJ was applied, for example, to the euro order issued against Puigdemont and the rest of the independence supporters who had escaped the Spanish justice system, which had been suspended for months by the Supreme Court, which asked a preliminary question. It is also common case law that judges who have matters on the table that another colleague has asked the ECJ to consider will put the proceedings on hold.
Puigdemont's party had already threatened to oppose the text at the end of last month, when its parliamentary speaker Miriam Nogueras detailed her reservations about the decree on the social network X (formerly Twitter). In the message published by Nogueras, she also referred to a frequent criticism of the royal decrees by political groups, including the executive's parliamentary allies: what she described as a “Macedonian” character, that is, that they contained a multitude of measures with no thematic connection between them.
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