María G. Zornoza Brussels
Brussels
Updated Tuesday, January 23, 2024-16:42
The Petitions Commission
(PETI)
held a heated session on Tuesday regarding
Spain
's Amnesty Law .
Eight individuals and associations filed a complaint with the committee led by Dolors Montserrat, leader of the PP in the European Parliament.
The interventions of Rosa Díez, founder of UPyD, or the jurist
Teresa Freixás
, who had already appeared in that room to denounce the linguistic regime of Spain, were met with criticism from socialist MEPs, who reproached the "sainete" and the " insults" from the right and the extreme right and the partisanship of the petitioners before an organization that is called to be the bridge between ordinary citizens and the European institutions.
In this crossfire, the French MEP Laurence Sailliet, of the Republicans, was "especially surprised" by the reaction of the socialists, whom she accused of "calling into question the work of the MEPs and the requests of the petitioners ".
"I understand that you are so nervous. I understand it because wanting to defend those who attack the rule of law must not be a very easy task. I am not here to act or insult anyone, but to tell you that in France there are many of us. "We are concerned about what is happening in Spain. It is not only an amnesty law, but a law that comes from a political negotiation to form a government," the French politician warned.
His criticisms of the Spanish amnesty law joined those previously outlined by his fellow member of the
European People's Party
, the German
Peter Jahr
, who asked the European Commission for more forceful action.
"If we accept, within the
EU
, that a Member State can thus trample on the rule of law and call democracy into question, the entire EU loses its credibility," warned
Sailliet
.