Spanish lower house approves amnesty for Catalan separatists Spanish lower house approves amnesty for Catalan separatists

The Spanish lower house has approved the draft of the controversial amnesty law for Catalan separatists in the second attempt.

The rules were approved on Thursday with 178 votes from the minority government as well as from the two Catalan separatist parties ERC and Junts, despite political unrest in Catalonia. 172 MPs voted against during the parliamentary session that was broadcast on state television channel RTVE.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez promised amnesty to the separatists to secure their votes for his re-election to parliament last fall. Junts, the liberal party of former regional government leader Carles Puigdemont, and ERC are seeking the secession of Catalonia from Spain.

Sánchez wants to prevent this and defuse the conflict through dialogue and concessions. The conservative opposition accused him of “corruption” by using the amnesty law to secure his re-election.

An initial draft of the left-wing government’s amnesty law was rejected by the House of Representatives at the end of January. At the time, not only the conservative and right-wing populist opposition voted against, but also the junts. The reason for Junts was concern that the amnesty would not protect from punishment all separatists prosecuted by the judiciary, especially EU MP Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium.

Later, the socialist ruling party PSOE agreed to the changes requested by the Junts, allowing the vote to be successful on the second attempt.

The draft will go to the Spanish Senate for discussion. The majority there is the opposition, which is against the amnesty. Although she can block the design for a maximum of two months, she cannot prevent this. The House of Representatives then votes again and definitively. This means that the amnesty could come into effect at the end of May. However, the judiciary could also stop parts of it. (sda/dpa/lyn)