Spain’s government moves forward amnesty law by redefining terrorism

OVIEDO, Spain

Spain’s congress debated the final changes in the controversial amnesty bill on Thursday, which could soon legally pardon dozens of Catalan separatist leaders and activists.

The previous amnesty bill was rejected in Spain’s parliament on Jan. 30, after the separatist group Junts Per Catalunya voted against it, arguing it did not go far enough.

The main sticking point is that the amnesty law stipulated it would not pardon charges related to terrorism or violence.

Since then, Spain’s Supreme Court has announced that it is investigating Carles Puigdemont, former Catalan president and member of the Junts party, for terrorism.

The terrorism investigation is related to protests in 2019, even though Puigdemont fled Spain in 2017 after his failed independence push.

The court says he may have masterminded protests around the Barcelona airport, which although not violent, may constitute terrorism under Spain’s terrorism laws, which were expanded to include “street terrorism” in 2015.

So, to be able to offer amnesty to Puigdemont, lawmakers from Spain’s progressive coalition, changed the previous law.

Now, the new amnesty bill eliminates references to the Spanish penal code surrounding terrorism, and will instead rely on definitions of terrorism in EU and international law. It also changes the wording around embezzlement, saying as long as people did not take public money for personal gain, those charges could also be forgiven.

The ability of Spain’s minority coalition government to continue ruling relies on the amnesty law. That’s because the balance of power in Spain’s highly fractured parliament hangs with Catalan separatist parties like Junts.

Spain’s parliament will now have to vote on the new amnesty bill in the coming days.

While Spain’s government and Catalan separatists are celebrating this as a breakthrough, right-wing parties are outraged.

“[Spanish Prime Minister Pedro] Sanchez is becoming Puidgemont’s puppet,” said Manfred Weber, the president of the European People's Party (EPP), on Thursday.

However, Spanish Minister Felix Bolanos boasts that The Venice Commission, a legal advisory body to the Council of Europe, backs the bill, saying in a draft opinion last week that “national unity and social and political reconciliation are legitimate objectives” of amnesty.

“This law is going to become an international example to follow,” Bolanos told media, announcing earlier on Thursday that he had struck a deal with the Catalan parties. “With this law, we will close an era of fighting, conflict and tension that lasted a decade.”

For their part, separatist politicians have said that this does not close the door to independence and that more negotiations will be needed for the government to perform other essential functions, such as passing the 2024 budget.