By Alyssa McMurtry
OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – The hardline Catalan separatist party, Junts per Catalonia, rejected an amnesty law put forward by the Spanish government in a parliamentary vote Tuesday.
Junts voted in a way that does not pass the legislation but does not end it either, giving politicians more time to negotiate its terms.
The vote is a blow to Spain’s fragile coalition government, which is supported by a diverse mixture of smaller nationalist parties from around the country.
The amnesty law was one of the major compromises that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government offered to Catalan separatists, who held a kingmaker position after last July’s elections.
The law, set to forgive politicians and activists involved in Catalonia’s independence push in the years leading up to and including 2017, was extremely controversial, even for many Socialist Party supporters.
The idea of amnesty triggered weeks of mass protests called by the right-wing Popular Party as well as nightly rioting in front of the Socialist Party headquarters.
“Junts voted alongside the Popular Party and Vox, which want to outlaw them,” Justice Minister Felix Bolanos told reporters after the vote. “It’s incomprehensible that Junts voted against a law that we agreed upon. I ask them to reconsider their position.”
Junts spokesperson Miriam Nogueras said in parliament that the amnesty law was “not what we signed.”
“It should not leave anyone out. We cannot leave this text open to the arbitrariness of the judicial system,” she added.
The law would have to be applied by the courts and experts were unsure of exactly how it would play out.
For instance, one portion of the law said that those charged with terrorism would not be pardoned “if and when, with direct intention, they caused serious violations to human rights.”
One of the two terrorism cases related to Catalan separatism involves high-ranking separatists including former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who serves as a member of the European Parliament in Brussels but has been exiled from Spain since 2017.
Puigdemont is also the head of the Junts.
As El Pais reported, the vague language around human rights violations means Puidgemont could still face charges depending on the case and judicial interpretations of the amnesty law.
In the terrorism case, a court is examining if the Tsunami Democratic civil organization was involved in terrorism due to protests around the Barcelona airport. One judge considers the group aimed to “subvert constitutional order” while the public prosecutor only sees signs of public disorder.
But while the terrorism investigation also involves the head of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), her party voted in favor of passing the proposed amnesty bill on Tuesday.
Junts holds seven of the 48 Catalan seats in parliament but has the future of the government in its hands.
At the same time, if Junts begins to paralyze all government measures, it could trigger fresh elections.
Spain’s Socialists have defended the current amnesty bill, affirming that it is constitutional while some of Junts’ demands may not be. This is a key concern as right-wing parties have vowed to challenge the bill in courts, when and if it passes.