Congress approves the processing of the amnesty law with the positive votes of 178 deputies

The plenary session of Congress debated and voted on Tuesday takes into account the proposed amnesty law whose processing was approved with the positive votes of 178 deputies, those of the coalition government and Podemos and those of the Catalan, Basque and Galician nationalists.

This law is expected to be processed in the Judiciary Committee of Congress and not in the Constitutional Committeeaccording to parliamentary sources who remember that it also concerns the Criminal Code.

The processing continues with the registration of the changes in whole and in part in the next seven days and with the debate in plenary and committee.

So while the amendments will be discussed in their entirety in the plenary session of Congress, the partial amendments will be discussed in the Judiciary Committee and not in the Constitutional Committee, despite the fact that PP and Vox They believe that the law is contrary to the Magna Carta.

This way, the bill does not have to be reviewed by the former Secretary General of Congress. Carlos Gutierrez that after his resignation as a senior lawyer of the House of Representatives, he became a lawyer in the Constitutional Commission, as a replacement Manuel Fernández-Fontechawho has held this position since 2020.

Gutiérrez was the lawyer who issued an unfavorable report on the 2021 amnesty bill, when he pointed out that the standard was unconstitutional because that text implied the granting of a general pardon, since it concerned a large number of subjects convicted with a final judgment.

Now, the Justice Committee’s lawyers will be responsible for processing the bill and amendments to it, which could also be tabled by a number of parties supporting it.

In this sense, C.K.D has indicated that they may propose changes to the text of the law, although Spanish government sources have recently stated that the essence of the proposal will not be changed.

Given the ERC’s doubts about whether Article 2 of the law excludes the Tsunami Democràtic and CDR protests from the amnesty, Republicans could ask for clarification.

In the debate on whether to consider the bill, EH’s deputy is Bildu Jon Inarritu He has defined the amnesty as “necessary, fair and very bold” and is convinced that it will serve to “unravel” the Catalan conflict and help resolve “the integration or withdrawal” of Catalonia into the Spanish state. “It puts an end to injustice, opens the way for dialogue and negotiation and thus the democratization of the state will be more recognized,” he said.

For his part, the PNV representative Mikel Legarda has defended the measure as a “legal institution that fits abstractly into the Constitution”, since, as he recalled, Article 62 only contains a ban on pardons, which concerns the “general pardon”, and has emphasized that this figure is endorsed by the Constitutional Court itself.

The PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi Lopezhas ensured that the amnesty is “much more transparent and democratic” than a pardon, because the latter measure is born “as a gracious concession from the government” and the former takes place “through an open debate with lights and stenographers” between parliamentarians.

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijoohas assured that the law is a “national disgrace” and an “international disgrace” and compared this afternoon’s plenary session to the 1981 coup. Feijóo has specifically stated that Congress has become “a sad Chamber” and “decadent” In fact, he has declared that this is the “saddest and most decadent” plenary meeting since that afternoon of February 23, 1981, because this rule undermines Spain’s “dignity” as a nation.