The 'collateral damage' of the PSOE's path to amnesty: electoral reinforcement of nationalism and break with its history

Marta Belver Madrid

Madrid

Updated Sunday, March 10, 2024-17:57

• Survey 42% of PSOE voters, "disappointed" with the amnesty

• Pact The intra-history of Sánchez's "historic" transfer to Puigdemont

Pedro Sánchez

's team

is exultant after the agreement reached with the pro-independence parties to carry out the Amnesty Law.

They don't hide it.

The Minister of the Presidency and Justice and main negotiator representing the Government,

Félix Bolaños

, had his subconscious fail when he congratulated himself in public for managing to clamp down on the controversial norm that will be approved next Thursday with 178 votes in favor, but that will drag another 172 against.

With this step, which strengthens the takeoff of the legislature, the PSOE completes its turn towards the nationalist theses that began with the granting in 2021 of pardons to the imprisoned leaders of the illegal 1-O referendum, in that case to pave the way for the ERC support for the following year's Budgets.

Already then, La Moncloa began to coin the idea of ​​"the need to reestablish coexistence and harmony in Catalonia and in Spanish society as a whole", although this strategy has contributed to deepening the gap between political blocs.

In parallel, Sánchez's management has become "podemized", as those within his own ranks reproach him for who never looked favorably on the coalition with

Pablo Iglesias

.

The culminating moment of this approach to the extreme left occurred when the president announced, during the 2022 State of the Nation Debate, the tax on banks and electricity companies that his partners demanded, endorsing the discourse of the dichotomy between the rich. and poor.

Under the shelter of this distancing of the PSOE from the centrist positions that it occupied in the past, the nationalist formations have been taking flight.

This transfer of support was especially tangible in the Galician elections last February, in which the BNG achieved its historical record of 31.5% of the votes at the expense of the progressive voter.

Predictably, the same will happen at the polls in the Basque Country on April 21: polls predict that the sum of PNV and EH Bildu could overcome the barrier of 70% citizen support for the first time.

To date, Sánchez has only managed to make the approach to independence in Catalonia politically profitable.

Salvador Illa

won the 2021 regional elections, although the joining of forces of ERC and Junts deprived him of the key to access the Generalitat.

This community was also the one that supported the president's party on 23-J, by increasing its number of deputies from 12 to 19, which allowed it to counteract the decline of others such as Andalusia, where it lost four seats, going from 25 to 21.

Among the collateral damage of this ideological drift is also a total fracture between Ferraz's leadership and classical socialism.

The turning point occurred six months ago with the expulsion of

Nicolás Redondo Terreros

, leader of the party in the Basque Country during the

lead years

of the terrorist group ETA, for "his repeated contempt for the acronym" after having demonstrated against the amnesty

With

Felipe González

and

Alfonso Guerra

, also very critical of the intention of applying such a measure of grace to those prosecuted by the

process

, this drastic extreme has not been reached, but distances have been marked both in private and in public.

In response to their objections, the current Secretary of Organization,

Santos Cerdán

, has even warned them that "those who do not respect the majorities of the party are disloyal."

The truth is that the PSOE militancy strongly endorsed - with 87% of the participants in an internal consultation - the agreement to form a Sumar coalition government and "achieve the support of other political formations" for the investiture, which It implied the approval of the amnesty.

However, in the formulation of the text of the question, the mention of a measure was not explicitly included that, according to a survey carried out by Sigma Dos for EL MUNDO last Thursday, 41.9% of its voters reject, compared to the 51.7% approve it.

With this restructuring of the political board, even the separation of powers has been called into question.

The final text of the law that seeks to erase the crimes of those involved in 1-O states that its objective is to "finalize the execution of the sentences and judicial processes that affect all people, without exception, who participated in the independence process", which in La Moncloa count at 372, when the interpretation of the norm corresponds to the judges who have to apply it.

In this context, three out of four socialist voters believe that Justice is not identical for all citizens, according to the results of another survey carried out by Sigma Dos for this newspaper at the end of last year.

The president of Castilla-La Mancha,

Emiliano García-Page

, has been the active socialist who has most clearly opposed the amnesty because he considers, precisely, that it "dynamites" the principle of equality before the law.

Government sources defend that the questioned rule is "immaculate", a work of "legal goldsmithing" and that it is "very well done" and "very armored" in the face of the already announced unconstitutional appeal that the PP will file.

Likewise, they emphasize their "satisfaction" after having managed to "close a door of this dimension" that will allow them to now focus "on social policies."

Faced with this week's optimism, the tension over the demands of the pro-independence parties in exchange for their support for an Executive in a parliamentary minority has even reached the ideological pillars of the PSOE.

In updating its political ideology last January, the majority partner of the coalition approved a change in the territorial model to reduce State control through the "consolidation" of the "co-governance" process with the communities.