The acting President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, today defended the Amnesty Law for Catalan independentists as the only way to achieve the formation of a PSOE (Socialist Party) Government, but he will send a question to the members to ask for their position on the matter without clearly mentioning the issue of forgiveness.
“In the name of Spain, in the interest of Spain, today I defend the amnesty in Catalonia for the events that occurred in the last decade,” Sánchez said in reference to the 2017 secessionist attempt before the Federal Committee of the PSOE.
The president spoke these words at a meeting of the Federal Committee of the PSOE in which the question that he will ask his militancy about the pact with the Sumar party and about the Amnesty Law was also approved.
“Do you support the agreement to form a Government with Sumar and achieve the support of other political formations to achieve the necessary majority?” is limited to expressing the question that the PSOE will ask its bases, party sources reported.
The consultation will last a week and activists will be able to vote electronically and in person.
Sánchez explained that the new “measures of grace” are to prevent the right from coming to power and admitted that before the elections an amnesty was not considered for “this moment” but that it is “the only possible way” to avoid going to a electoral repetition.
“I know that I will not change the opinion of those who feel more comfortable living in the loop of the year 2017 (…) but I want to tell all of them that courage is also manifested sometimes by making a very simple and very true Spanish saying come true. , and we have to make a virtue out of necessity.”
In his opinion, the amnesty is “the only possible way” for there to be a Government in Spain and the elections are not repeated, thus avoiding giving a “second chance” for the Popular Party (right) and Vox (ultra-right) to form a government that will set the country back “decades in just a few years.”
In turn, he reported that the amnesty is “the condition” imposed by 56 Congressional deputies so that there can be “a Government of progress” and recalled that when an absolute majority is not achieved in the elections, “demands from others must be incorporated.” parliamentary groups”.
He added that now we must look for the “fit” of the amnesty in the Constitution, sharing his conviction that it is a tool used “in many other countries around us”, including “very consolidated democracies”, such as Portugal, Germany, Italy or the United Kingdom.
“Our history teaches us that it is with agreements and generosity that our country and our democracy are stronger. With the pardons first and now with the amnesty we will make many Catalans feel more identified with our common project that is Spain and that is the Spanish Constitution,” he added, quoted by the Spanish news agency Europa Press.
The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, asked Sánchez to submit the approval of the amnesty “to the decision of all Spaniards and not only to the applause of the positions he himself appointed.”
After Sánchez’s speech before the Federal Committee of the PSOE, Feijóo stated that the approval of the amnesty “is not coexistence, it is convenience.”
The PSOE finished in second place in the July 23 elections, behind the PP, but the latter, without an absolute majority, did not obtain sufficient support from other parties to be sworn in as president, opening the way for a new left-wing government.
The most complicated negotiations are with the Catalan separatist parties, especially with Junts per Catalunya (JxCat).
Both this party, which has seven deputies, and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), set conditions to give their support to Sánchez, such as the approval of an amnesty for independentists with legal cases for the failed secession.
Source: Ambito
