The debate on the amnesty law in Congress ended and Pedro Sánchez entered the chamber to take his seat. The entire debate was blown and did not reach the votes. There was a cry of “traitor!” coming from the ranks of Vox, whose deputies had tried to set fire to the discussion. The socialists moved like a spring to applaud their leader, who had been busy with apparently more important things. To begin with, he avoided the speeches of Junts and Esquerra who denied with their words the justification that Sánchez has given for the collective forgiveness of all prosecuted or convicted pro-independence leaders.
It was a session in which the president of Congress completely lost control of the situation. In reality, she never had the slightest chance because Vox decided to boycott the plenary session and turn it into a drunken fight. This time, they were not satisfied with a few insults hurled from the benches. Several deputies rose from their seats to scream and howl at the helplessness of Francina Armengol. Manuel Mariscal and Pedro González stood up in unison to call the representatives of the left “traitors” and “sellouts.” They weren’t the only ones.
Armengol once called several of them to order, including Mariscal, but did not dare to expel them. The rules of the House stipulates that after the third call to order the presidency “may impose the sanction of not attending the rest of the session.” That would include the vote, although there is a doubt as to whether the punishment could be lifted just before the vote begins.
The Vox deputies were blatantly seeking his expulsion, probably with the intention of delegitimizing the final result, which was 177 votes in favor and 172 against. Mariscal screamed again during the vote, an unprecedented event in Congress.
Previously, the president had made the mistake of granting a minute’s reply to Sumar’s spokesperson, Gerardo Pisarello, to respond to Santiago Abascal. She did not do the same when José María Figaredo, from Vox, tried to respond to Pisarello. Almost all the interventions contained serious cross accusations. It was not clear why the Sumar deputy had the opportunity for the extra minute.
The independentistas presented themselves as the great winners. After their dismal result in the Catalan elections, where they lost their absolute majority, it was time to stick out their chests. “It is not forgiveness or clemency. It is victory,” said Míriam Nogueras, from Junts. Victory for their own, it is understood. He stated that this is a battle won “in the conflict that has pitted two nations against one another for centuries.” Junts obtained 21% of the votes in May, a figure that puts their aspiration to lead a new independence process into perspective.
Gabriel Rufián, from ERC, called it “the first defeat of the ’78 regime.” He went on to congratulate senior leaders of both parties, including those who were convicted in the Supreme Court trial. He even included Puigdemont in the acknowledgments: “Thank you, Carles Puigdemont, for leading such a brave Government,” referring to that of 2017.
The former president is not usually on Rufián’s list of favorite politicians, something that Puigdemont’s followers who dedicate all kinds of insults to him on social networks, in addition to reminding him of the “155 silver coins” tweet, know very well.
“We will do it again, we will do it together,” Jordi Cuixart, one of those convicted in the procés trial, said on Twitter, despite not having been an elected official nor having approved any law considered illegal by the courts.
The political success of the process in Catalonia was based on unity of action between very different parties and an immense social mobilization that at the polls translated into an absolute pro-independence majority. Junts dynamited that unity of action when it left the Government of Pere Aragonès, whose subsequent failure caused the collapse of the vote for Esquerra. The mobilization has been diluted to nothing, due to the indignation of the ANC, which has reproached the parties for their passivity. The last elections left the sum of Junts, ERC and the CUP without a majority. The independence movement only accumulates defeats in Catalonia, which does not mean that they are irreversible.
In politics, only the very naive believe that announcing that you are going to do something is a firm guarantee that it will be very easy to fulfill your wishes.
After so many months of discussion, the arguments of the PSOE and the PP sounded very repeated. Nobody from the Government defended the law, since it was based on a PSOE bill. His spokesperson in the debate, Artemi Rallo, did not forget that we are in a campaign and melodramatically announced that Feijóo “will be devoured by his own people and by the neo-fascist beast that is sweeping through Spain and Europe.” The norm “respects the separation of powers” –said the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, outside the chamber–, because it will be the judges who will have the “ultimate decision” on its application in their hands.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo left a doubt in the air: “If this law is applied, gentlemen of the PSOE, you are going to be of little use to the independence movement. And if it is not finally applied, gentlemen of the independence movement, we all know that they will not forgive you.” There is always doubt about the outcome of an appeal to the Constitutional Court, but everyone is thinking about a more sinister option, that there are judges who believe that they are not obliged to apply a law approved by Parliament or who manipulate the investigation of a case to that is not affected by the new standard.
The prosecutors of the procés trial intend to reserve the right to apply the law in some aspects and not in others. The amnesty party has concluded in the legislature, but there is a very real option that there will be an extension in the courts.
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