In Brussels, Carles Puigdemonte and Santos Cerdan, the main negotiators of Junts and PSOE, respectively, are announcing the agreement at noon. Last week the main content on the amnesty law was given, and the last detail to be given this week or next week is still unclear. In any case, the investiture session of Pedro Sánchez will be held next week, according to most sources, from Wednesday.

The Amnesty Law will cover all disputes involving proces up to 2013, including those relating to the referendum of 1 October 2017 or the consultation held in 2014. In this sense, today is a special day for the sovereign Catalans, since the first consultation on the independence of Catalonia was held on 9 November 2014, led by the government of Artur Mas de CiU. The Amnesty Act will also include other lawfare cases, including Junts President Laura Borras.

Combat of PP and Vox

Using Amnesty’s law, a very tough political campaign is being conducted against PP and PSOE, perhaps the hardest so far. At the top of the right, in recent days thousands of people have gathered in front of the PSOE headquarters in Madrid and there have been incidents, especially last Tuesday night.

Although at times between 6,000 and 7,000 people have met in the sessions, about 1,500 on Wednesday nights have been protested. The demonstrators have made an effort to approach the headquarters of Ferraz and then there have been riots between them and the police, but, in general, the calm attitude of the Spanish Police towards the demonstrators is striking. Next Sunday PP and Vox have also called for demonstrations throughout the state and are expected to be massive. Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, has made an institutional statement in this regard and has urged the PP to condemn the violence committed and to suspend the calls.

Wood also from the judiciary

On November 6, the General Council of the Spanish Judiciary CGPJ adopted a political declaration against the still unknown amnesty law. This is very rare, and it said that if the law is passed, that means the abolition of the rule of law. Pedro Sánchez’s statement that he confused Spain’s interest with his own, that he wants to avoid non-ideological governments, and that this is not compatible with political alternation. He went ahead with the vote in favour of nine Conservative members, five against, the lehendakari abstained and another member did not attend the vote.

Also, earlier this week, the National Court of Spain has made new accusations against the Catalan initiative of the Democratic Tsunami, six years after those events, including the imputation of Carles Puigdemont and then ERC Secretary General Marta Rovira.

Thank you also from Brussels

The Spanish right is exerting unusual pressure and its work in Brussels has had its consequences: European Union Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has written a letter to Pedro Sánchez explaining his concern about the amnesty law and asking for information on it. If this is rare in Brussels, it is even more so when the law has not yet been passed.

Despite the efforts made, the PP has not succeeded in making Alberto Núñez Feijo the president of the Spanish Government, but the right has a great primacy in the political landscape of Spanish institutions, such as the municipalities, the autonomies or the Senate, and the PP has announced that everything will be against the new government. In fact, the Senate will be an important instrument for this: although they have a large majority there, they will not be able to paralyse the laws or decrees of the Spanish Government, but they will alter their activity, for example, with the normative changes that take place in the Senate Bureau.

After signing the agreement with the Boards, the signing of the PNV is still missing, but, as has been mentioned from PSOE sources, the negotiations are almost closed and there you see no problem.