Spain's proposed amnesty for prosecutions related to the Catalan independence process provoked a verbal civil war this Wednesday in the European Parliament, just the day after the introduction of the amnesty legislation was debated for the first time in Madrid's Congress of Deputies. The reason was the appearance of the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to give his assessment of the semester under which Spain has held the EU Council's rotating presidency. After receiving a veritable deluge of criticism from the ranks of the rightist parties People's Party (PP), Ciudadanos (Cs) and Vox - and not only from Spanish MEPs - Sánchez responded with a defence of Spanish democracy and the amnesty law, as a way to normalize the situation in Catalonia, and with a direct appeal to the Catalan president-in-exile, Carles Puigdemont, who as an MEP was following the debate from the back of the chamber. "Today the situation in Catalonia is infinitely better and we will continue to improve it. I want to tell Mr Puigdemont that it is in our hands to achieve that," he said.
Sánchez did not refer to this issue during his principal address, but he did in his turn of reply after receiving the cold-water treatment from the conservatives and the extreme right. He warned that Spain is one of the most consolidated democracies, "young, imperfect, but superior in quality, according to all empirical studies". "And if it does not occupy a better situation it is because of a clear case of lawfare, caused by the PP that is blocking the renewal of [judicial governance body] the General Council of the Judiciary", he replied.
Sánchez (Spanish PM) in Strasbourg: "To Mr Puigdemont I want to say that it is in our hands to achieve that."
The Spanish PM challenged the People's Party to break its "idyll" with the far right; noting that the presence of extremists in Europe has doubled in recent years and has become the leading option on the right for one in three EU member states. "That is the real threat," he warned, as protests and sarcastic laughter could be heard among far right MEPs.
Catalonia, 2017
The Spanish PM recalled that in 2017 there were situations of discord and confrontation in Catalonia. "Nobody can be proud of that time," he warned. He recalled that the justice commissioner Didier Reynders, today critical of the proposed amnesty law, demanded that dialogue be resumed six years ago, and the Portuguese deputy Paulo Rangel, who railed against him today, warned that it had been "a serious mistake to move forward with the judicial persecution and the imprisonment of the political leaders". Despite all of that, he affirmed that his government has tried to undo the PP's failure on in this issue, and asserted that his government's pardoning of nine Catalan leaders in 2021 normalized the situation and that the amnesty will further support this.
"Today the situation in Catalonia is infinitely better and we will continue to improve it. I want to tell Mr Puigdemont that it is in our hands to achieve that. That we must do it through politics, negotiation and the Constitution; and the amnesty law is an important step", he affirmed, in addition to insisting that it is a constitutional law and that it has broad support. Likewise, he guaranteed that they will continue to promote the use of the Catalan, Galician and Basque languages, after Puigdemont, in his own speech, had shown concern about the failure to achieve approval for the reform of the EU's language regulations.
"Ultimately, it is not the bid for re-encounter that threatens democracy, at all. The real threat to Spain and Europe is the advance of the far right and also the irresponsibility of the traditional right which is opening the doors to coalition governments and is making many far-right ideas their own," he insisted amid protests from the conservative seats.
Germany and the Third Reich
The president of the European PP group, the German politician Manfred Weber, who opened the speeches in reply from the parliamentary parties, was the first to speak about Spain's amnesty plan in this debate. In fact, he was one of the few to whom Sánchez answered directly in his own reply, advising him to get to know Spain first and not just repeat the slogans of his Spanish right-wing colleagues. "Do you know who the allies of the PP are in Spain? What does Vox represent? How does it define the EU?", asked Sánchez, at the same time as he quoted a collection of statements by the leaders of Vox, while the MEPs of this far-right party heckled him in the chamber. Among other things, he informed Weber that Vox wants to recover the street names for people linked to the Francoist dictatorship in Spanish cities. "Would this also be your plan for Germany to reinstate the names of the leaders of the Third Reich on the streets and squares of Berlin?" he asked the German MEP, causing the protests and whistles from the rightist parties to get louder. The head of the European PP called for a point of order, but he did so while Sánchez was already leaving the chamber.
Weber had criticized Sánchez for denying that he was willing to push for the amnesty until before the July election, and then afterwards, agreeing to approve it. "Europe is concerned, the Commission is asking very important questions", he warned, in addition to reproaching Sánchez for having promised Carles Puigdemont's party commissions of inquiry into the judicialization of the Catalan independence process and adding that "yesterday in the Spanish Parliament the Puigdemont group targeted specific judges". The EPP head warned that if this commission on the response of justice to the Catalan process goes ahead, a commission of inquiry will be needed in the European Parliament to study what is happening in Spain very closely."
Homelands, in terms of insults
The president of the European Socialist group, Iratxe García - also a member of Spain's PSOE - then spoke, expressing her support for Sánchez in the face of a "right and far right that only understand homelands in terms of insults". "They can't teach any lessons about the rule of law, not one, especially when their party has been blocking the [Spanish] judiciary for five years," García replied to Weber. The Socialist MEP had already staged a shouting match with a PP representative before the plenary session began.
After the leaders of the major groups, it was the turn of the MEPs who had asked to speak. The first, Jorge Buixadé of Vox, accused Sánchez of leading a "coup against democracy", passing a law to benefit a group of people who had acted against the nation, a law which has provoked the response without exception of all judges. "It's taking us back centuries", he replied, in addition to holding Sánchez responsible for the biggest act of corruption" in Spanish politics, cooked up "in a sordid Brussels hotel by a band of looters".
Jorge Buixadé (Vox): "In February 1936 the Popular Front gave an amnesty to [the jailed Catalan leaders of 1934]... months later [Catalan leader] Luis Companys was responsible for the murder of 8,000 Spaniards."
The PP politician Dolors Montserrat asserted to Sánchez that "Spain says no to an amnesty, to a blow against democracy and to very serious corruption offences, which creates first and second class Spaniards". "No one laughs at Spain, because we are a great nation", she declared, in addition to calling Sánchez a politician without principles or discourse who "destroys everything to stay in power". "Sánchez's amnesty is selling Spain's dignity for the seven votes he needs to govern," she stated.
Dolors Montserrat (PP): "Spain says no to the infamy of transferring its national sovereignty to a shameful negotiating table outside the EU with an international mediator"
The spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Adrián Vázquez, responded to Sánchez with his own warning: "You, who are so concerned about history, should know that if you don't rectify, yours will not end well."
The Portuguese conservative MEP Paulo Rangel denounced that a persecution that he compared to that of the witches of Salem has begun in Spain, and he ended his address by assuring: "I don't believe in witches, but there are some of them".
Also from Cs, Jordi Cañas compared Sánchez to Dorian Grey, accused him above all of having breached European principles for seven votes. And the PP's Javier Zarzalejos spoke of a European anomaly and national shame to denounce that "acts of terrorism, yes acts of terrorism, will go unpunished".
Catalan Republican Left (ERC) representative Diana Riba was more original and told the house about the king of Spain, Felipe VI, and his broad smile next to the new Argentine President Javier Milei, "happier than during his investiture of Pedro Sánchez". Riba warned that ERC's proposal is a referendum on independence and asked the Spanish PM what his own proposal is.
Diana Riba (ERC): "Finally, it seems they have seen that the conflict between Spain and Catalonia is also a European issue, and thus the prescription is also European."