Spain: Catalan independentists reject the amnesty procedure and negotiations are prolonged

The Spanish Congress will continue to negotiate the amnesty bill for the Catalan independentists responsible for the 2017 secessionist attempt, after it was rejected on Tuesday in the plenary session of the Lower House, with votes against the Catalan Junts group, which called for greater protection.

The vote ended with 171 in favor and 179 against, so the text returns to the Justice Commission. Another period of negotiations opens.

The reason for the paralysis of the treatment is that Carles Puigdemont’s party, Junts per Catalunya, no longer obtained any transfers from the Socialists (PSOE) of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He called for amnesty to be extended to all forms of terrorism

The project aroused great resistance, with a massive march in Madrid organized by the PP. The law aims to erase the crimes committed by those who attempted to found the republic of Catalonia in 2017. It was part of Pedro Sánchez’s negotiations with nationalist parties, in exchange for the support of Catalans and Basques for his re-election.

Among the main opponents were José María Aznar, Alberto Núñez Feijoo (president of the PP), Mariano Rajoy and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid.

One of the most controversial points of the project is whether or not the crimes committed by independence activists reported or investigated as terrorism were included in the tabula rasa.

After the illegal self-determination referendum, the unilateral declaration of independence in 2017 and the intervention of Catalonia by the central government – then led by Mariano Rajoy -, there were riots in Catalan cities and some extreme activist groups, such as Tsunami Democràtic or the Committee for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), blocked routes, burned containers in the streets and interrupted the activity of Barcelona’s El Prat airport.