On Thursday, Spain’s parliament gave final approval to the Catalan amnesty law that would end legal action against Catalans involved in a failed secession attempt in 2017.
The bill was passed by a narrow margin of 177 votes in favour and 172 votes against. However, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the vote.
In politics, as in life, forgiveness is more powerful than rancor. Today Spain is more prosperous and united than in 2017. Coexistence is making its way.
Spanish courts will have a two-month deadline to implement a legislation. The Catalan amnesty law could cancel the legal records of hundreds of officials and activists involved in Catalonia’s separatist movement since 2011.
Spain’s lower house of parliament approved a bill that granted amnesty to more than 300 nationalists, including former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, in March.
Puigdemont also welcomed the law’s approval on X.
Today a historic event took place in the long existing and unresolved battle between Catalonia and the Spanish State. It has been the stubborn will of the people of Catalonia to have their decisions respected, what some of us define as maintaining the position, what will allow to return to politics what should never have come out of it.
He also noted that it was “not the only one to be corrected in the long list of errors committed by the State in relation to the demands of the people of Catalonia.”
The lower house of parliament had previously rejected the bill in January, as the Junts party opposed it. It cited fears of possible prosecution for “terrorism.” Parliament subsequently agreed a revised version of the law to address the issue.
Since coming to power in 2018, Sánchez tried to reduce tensions in the northeastern region. He argued that an amnesty was key to achieving de-escalation. However, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo labelled him a “coward” for his absence from the debate.
Ask yourselves why he is such a coward that he won’t even appear here today.
Feijóo also criticised Sánchez’s party. He stated that Thursday’s decision was “the death certificate of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.”
