Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has defended the controversial Catalan amnesty law that is set to deliver his socialist party a second term, saying the act of clemency towards hundreds of people involved in the push for regional independence is needed to promote “dialogue, understanding and forgiveness”.
Although Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) was narrowly beaten by the conservative People’s party (PP) in July’s inconclusive snap general election, it has managed to succeed where the PP and its allies in the far-right Vox party failed by cobbling together enough parliamentary support to form a government.
That support, however, has come at a price. The two main Catalan pro-independence parties – the pragmatic Catalan Republican Left (ERC) and the hardline Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) – made their backing conditional on the granting of an amnesty to those involved in the failed and unilateral bid for independence six years ago.
Sánchez and his partners in the leftwing Sumar alliance have agreed to the amnesty in order to secure the key votes of the ERC and Junts, provoking a furious backlash from the PP and Vox, who have accused Sánchez of caving into the separatists, hypocrisy and putting self-preservation before the national interest. The PP has called on the EU to weigh in on the proposed law, while Vox has suggested the acting prime minister is perpetrating “a coup d’état in capital letters”.
Speaking in congress on Wednesday as MPs held an investiture debate that will be followed by a vote on Thursday that he already has the numbers to win, Sánchez said the amnesty would help the country turn the page on the past.
“In the name of Spain and its interests and in the defence of coexistence between Spaniards, we’re going to grant an amnesty to those people who are facing legal action over the [Catalan independence] process,” he said.
“This amnesty will benefit many people, political leaders whose ideas I do not share and whose actions I reject, but also hundreds of citizens who were swept up in the process.”
The move, he added, was not the attack on the Spanish constitution that his opponents had claimed, but rather “a demonstration of its strength”.
Sánchez contrasted his more conciliatory approach with that of the PP government of Mariano Rajoy, which opposed greater autonomy for Catalonia and reacted to the illegal, unilateral 2017 independence referendum by sending police to stop people voting.
A united Spain, Sánchez added, was a more prosperous Spain. “And how do we guarantee that unity? You can try the path of tension and imposition, or you can try the path of dialogue, understanding and forgiveness.”
He went on to suggest that the Spanish right was using the amnesty issue to distract from its failure to triumph in the general election.
“We can’t be naive: the problem the PP and Vox have isn’t the amnesty for the [Catalan] leaders; it’s that they can’t accept the election results of 23 July,” he said. “However much they may wrap themselves in the flag – which is also our flag – the reactionary right doesn’t care much about the amnesty.”
Sánchez also used his speech to announce a series of measures aimed at helping people weather the cost of living crisis. As well as introducing free public transport for young people and unemployed people from next year, he said his government would increase rental subsidies for young people, extend the threshold for mortgage relief support, and reduce the working week from 40 hours to 37.5 hours by 2025.
The tense mood outside congress – where barricades had been set up following recent violent protests against the amnesty – was mirrored inside the lower chamber as opposition politicians began to speak.
The PP’s leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, launched a blistering attack on Sánchez for agreeing to an amnesty that will include Carles Puigdemont, the self-exiled former Catalan regional president who was the architect of the 2017 bid to secede and who fled to Belgium to avoid arrest in its aftermath.
“You are the problem,” he told the PSOE leader. “You and your inability to keep your word, your lack of moral limits, your pathological ambition. As long as you’re around, Spain will be condemned to division. Your time as prime minister will be marked by Puigdemont returning freely to Catalonia. History will have no amnesty for you.”
Sánchez also received a shot across the bows from his new backers. The acting prime minister’s mention of “a united Spain” appeared to annoy Junts, who warned him that their support for his minority coalition government remained conditional.
“If we are here today it is to make things really change,” said Junts’s spokesperson, Miriam Nogueras. “But if there is no progress, we will not approve any initiative presented by your government. It is linked to progress and compliance with agreements.” She also told him “not to tempt fate”.
The language in congress became blunter still after Sánchez reminded Feijóo of an alleged corruption scandal involving the populist PP president of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Ayuso, who was sitting in the chamber’s gallery, was caught on camera responding to Sánchez’s jibe by calling him an “hijo de puta”, which could politely be translated as a son of a bitch.
Ayuso’s team initially told El País that she had pronounced the similar-sounding phrase “me gusta la fruta” (I like fruit), before admitting that she had indeed called him an hijo de puta.
They added: “The president’s reply to a baseless corruption allegation was the very least it deserved.”
Ayuso has recently accused the acting prime minister of enacting a “totalitarian” project and ushering in “a dictatorship through the back door”.
