Catalan separatists to ‘shield’ amnesty law before EU, Spanish courts

The two main Catalan separatist forces Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is relying on for government stability is trying to legally “shield” the amnesty law for those involved in the 2017 secessionist attempt in Catalonia and prevent it from being overturned by the EU Court of Justice, Spanish media reported on Monday.

Right-wing Catalan party JxCat, left-wing Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Sanchez’s socialist PSOE want to improve the legal wording of the new measure of grace, which already passed a first hurdle in parliament on 12 December with a majority of 178 MPs voting in favour, El País reported.

The proposed law, which will pardon Catalan separatists for some of the unlawful political actions they carried out in 2012, still has to incorporate some amendments and adjustments to prevent the Spanish courts, particularly the Constitutional Court or the Supreme Court, from blocking it, El Periódico de Catalunya reported.

Although Justice Minister Félix Bolaños (PSOE/S&D) recently met EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova to assure Brussels that the norm respects EU law, the Commission’s legal experts are still analysing the text.

Spain’s main opposition force, Partido Popular, and far-right Vox, the third force in parliament, consider the law to be contrary to the Spanish Constitution and recently made calls to stage many protest actions and announced their legal offensive to challenge the norm in Spanish and EU courts.

Led by Oriol Junqueras, ERC, the separatist formation that governs Catalonia’s regional executive, is trying to prevent two of Spain’s highest judicial bodies, the General Council of the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Council, from issuing an opinion on the law’s legality, as requested by PP in the majority conservative Senate just a few days.

Last week, the ERC’s spokesperson in the Senate, Sara Bailac, filed an appeal on behalf of her party to prevent the two highest courts from issuing their opinion on the amnesty law, as ERC and JxCat both expect this to be negative.

“The law is a perfectly legitimate legislative act within the democratic and constitutional framework”, ERC wrote in its appeal, stressing that PP’s initiative “defies democratic practice”.

Reports from both judicial bodies are not necessary as they are “attempts at sabotage coming from the right and the far-right”, said ERC spokesperson in the Spanish parliament Raquel Sand,  as quoted by  El Español daily.

Expected meeting between Sánchez and Puigdemont

Meanwhile, after the controversy generated last week by a future meeting between Sánchez and JxCat leader and former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, the spokesman for the Catalan separatist formation, Josep Rius, assured on Monday that the expected meeting will take place “soon” in an EU country, but not in Spain, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

Rius did not specify the date, time or place of the meeting, although he said it is logical to think that the topics that will be discussed are directly related to the pact signed by PSOE.

JxCat’s seven parliamentary seats are essential for Sánchez to remain in power.

The prime minister and PSOE leader have been forced to grant generous concessions to Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras, including the approval of the amnesty law and the cancellation of €15 billion of Catalonia’s debt to the central state, among others.

But Generalitat President Pere Aragonès (ERC), among other separatist leaders, has recently made it clear that the ultimate goal of the pro-independence movement is to achieve a referendum on self-determination.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)

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