Thousands of people took to the streets in Madrid against a planned amnesty law for Catalan separatists. The vote is scheduled to take place next week. The opposition calls the project a “national disgrace.”
Thousands of people have again protested in Spain against the plan to grant an amnesty to Catalan separatists. According to police estimates, 15,000 people took part in the rally in Cibeles Square in Madrid. The organizers reported a significantly higher number of participants.
Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s People’s Party (PP) and the right-wing populist Vox also joined the protest. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and chanted, among other things, “Sánchez traitor” and “Sánchez in prison.”
Approval of amended draft
A first bill from the left-wing government was rejected by the lower house at the end of January. At that time, not only the conservative and right-wing populist opposition voted against it, but also the Catalan party Junts of the former regional government leader Carles Puigdemont. The reason for Junts was the concern that the amnesty would not protect all separatists being prosecuted by the judiciary from punishment.
On Wednesday, however, an amended draft of the penal remission was approved in Parliament’s Justice Committee, which is also accepted by Junts. The new version of the law will be discussed and voted on for the first time in the House of Commons next Thursday. However, the parliamentary process is likely to take months.
If Parliament approves the second version of the law, it must be approved by the Senate. However, in the event of the expected negative Senate vote, the law can then be finally passed by Parliament in another round. The opposition has already announced that it will challenge the amnesty law in the Supreme Court.
Sánchez wants to defuse things through dialogue
Sánchez had promised the amnesty to the “Catalanistas” in order to secure the votes of two separatist parties for his re-election in the lower house in Madrid in autumn 2023. Feijóo describes the project as a “national disgrace and international embarrassment.” The resistance against the law is intended to “save” the endangered democracy in Spain.
The liberal Junts party led by Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium since the failed separation attempt in autumn 2017, and the left-wing ERC of Catalan regional president Pere Aragonès are both striving for Catalonia to secede from Spain. Sánchez wants to defuse the conflict through dialogue and concessions.