Spanish Parliament to vote on controversial amnesty bill for Catalan separatists

• Spain’s lower house of parliament is scheduled to debate and vote on Tuesday on the fate of a highly controversial amnesty bill for Catalan separatists.
• The bill was brokered by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to shore up support in Catalonia and end the legal woes of hundreds of people involved in the region’s unsuccessful illegal independence movement. It turns out.
• The bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate, where the conservative People’s Party holds an absolute majority.

Spain’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday debated a highly divisive amnesty law aimed at clearing up legal issues for hundreds of people who may have been involved in Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence movement. We plan to vote on it.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to push through the law in exchange for parliamentary support from two small Catalan separatist parties, allowing him to form a new minority left-wing government late last year. Ta.

The bill would pave the way for the return of fugitive former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, leader of one of the separatist parties who fled Spain to Belgium after leading the illegal secession that brought Catalonia to the brink in 2017. may open.

Spain’s Sanchez defends controversial amnesty deal signed with Catalan separatists

A key question is whether Puigdemont’s party can include a clause in the bill that would cover all possible legal challenges if he returns. If that is not possible, the bill may be repealed.

Puigdemont and the issue of Catalonia’s independence are anathema to many Spaniards, and the amnesty bill has angered conservatives and far-right opposition parties, who make up about half of the country’s population. Many members of the judiciary and police are also opposed, as are some senior members of Mr. Sánchez’s own party.

Opposition parties have staged at least seven large-scale demonstrations in violation of the law in recent months.

Even if the bill is approved on Tuesday, it is unclear when it will take effect because it must be submitted to the Senate, where the fiercely conservative main opposition People’s Party holds an absolute majority. The party pledged to do everything in its power to block the bill in the Senate and challenge it in court.

Mr Sánchez admitted that he would not have agreed to the amnesty if he had not needed the support of the Catalan separatist parliament. He also said that without their support he would not have been able to form a government, and that the right wing could have won a majority of seats in the 2023 elections and taken power.

He now says that the amnesty will be good for Spain as it will further calm the waves in Catalonia, and that the Catalan policy since taking office in 2018 has significantly eased the tensions that existed between Madrid and Barcelona during the Popular Party government. I am proud that I did it. .

The previous government of Sánchez helped heal wounds by pardoning several imprisoned leaders of the Catalan independence movement.

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A vote requires approval from 176 members of the 350-member House of Representatives. Mr Sanchez’s coalition of minority parties has 147 seats, but has the in-principle support of at least 30 more MPs.