The lower house of the Spanish Parliament rejected this Tuesday (30) an amnesty bill for Catalan separatists, in a blow to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which illustrates his parliamentary fragility.
The document was rejected by 179 votes against 171, due to disagreements over its scope between the ruling Socialists and a Catalan separatist party,
It will return for debate in a parliamentary committee and could eventually be sent for another vote in the lower house.
The amnesty bill is expected to define Sánchez's second term and has sparked large protests against it.
The Catalan Junts separatists voted against the law after they were unable to reach a last-minute agreement with Sánchez's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
Junts wanted all terrorism-related exceptions removed from the bill, as some of its politicians are currently being investigated by the courts for alleged terrorism-related crimes.
The bill was presented by the socialists in exchange for the support of the Catalan separatist parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and Junts for Sánchez's new mandate.
“Junts cannot participate in leaving all Catalan separatism exposed to the arbitrariness of the politicized Spanish Judiciary”, highlighted parliamentarian Miriam Nogueras. She said the current amnesty proposal is very selective and has loopholes.
However, Sánchez's party had said that some crimes involving terrorism-related charges could not be pardoned.
The amnesty would cover all events related to Catalonia's independence campaign from 2012 onwards, including a symbolic vote held in 2014 and an independence referendum in 2017, which courts declared illegal.
The measure is expected to benefit several hundred separatists, as well as some police officers who raided polling stations during the referendum.
Sánchez, who has opposed an amnesty in the past and still rejects an independence referendum, argued that the bill seeks to promote reconciliation. The conservative opposition, on the other hand, accused the prime minister of undermining the rule of law.
Source: CNN Brasil
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