Enlarge image
Spanish Parliament before the vote on the amnesty law: unstable government majority
Photo:
Javier Soriano/AFP
The Spanish parliament rejected a controversial amnesty law on Tuesday, inflicting a bitter defeat on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Ironically, the party of Catalonia's former regional president Carles Puigdemont voted against the bill, which was intended to benefit Catalan independence activists in particular. For the Junts party, the text did not go far enough as, in their view, it did not guarantee impunity for Puigdemont.
The law will now go back to a parliamentary committee and can be changed again there. However, the rejection of the draft shows the extreme weakness of the government of Social Democrat Pedro Sánchez, who relies on Puigdemont's Junts party for his majority.
Sánchez formed a government in November with the help of Puigdemont's Catalan independence supporters. In return for their support, Sánchez had promised amnesty to the independence activists.
The background to the controversial amnesty law is the failed attempt to secede Catalonia from Spain in 2017. The central government in Madrid then accused the then regional president Puigdemont of rebellion and embezzlement of public funds, disempowered the Catalan regional government, ordered new elections and put Puigdemont on a wanted list . He then went abroad. The amnesty is intended to benefit in particular hundreds of activists who were persecuted by the Spanish justice system after the failed secession. Puigdemont could then return to Spain after years in exile.
The planned amnesty law is highly controversial in Spain and sparked violent protests (you can read more about it here). The PP and the right-wing extremist Vox party accuse the Social Democrat of breaking the law and maintaining power at all costs. On Sunday, 45,000 opponents of the amnesty law took to the streets in Madrid city center.
sol/AFP/Reuters