The Spanish parliament has approved a bill that would pardon Catalan separatists who committed unlawful acts between 2012 and 2023, but with the text now heading to the Senate, the party with a majority in the higher house, the right-wing Partido Popular (PP), has said it will try to block the process.

Parliament approved the bill by 178 votes to 172 in the 350-seat lower house in Madrid, with only the PP, the far-right VOX (the third force in parliament), the right-wing UPN (Navarre), and Coalición Canaria voting against the text.

The bill is set to be approved by the end of May or early June and according to government estimates, would benefit around 400 Catalan separatists, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

It would absolve those linked to the secessionist movement of all criminal, administrative and financial responsibility, potentially paving the way for the return to Spain of former Catalan president and JxCat leader Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium since being charged with leading the independence movement.

However, the bill may not even pass the Senate, as the PP and VOX — who have repeatedly criticised the Sanchez government for pandering to the Catalan separatists to cling to power — reiterated their strong opposition to the bill in parliament.

Key figures from both parties said they would launch an intensive legal campaign to try to overturn the bill in the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the EU Court of Justice.

However, passing the amnesty law bill remains key for the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, as it promised Catalan separatist parties — right-wing JxCat and left-wing ERC — such a bill in exchange for its support in parliament. Both separatist parties have also made it clear that the amnesty law “is only the first step” towards an independence referendum.

Puigdemont had even refused to support Sánchez without a “comprehensive” amnesty law, including possible crimes of “terrorism” allegedly committed in 2019, while in January, his party rejected a proposal it said did not provide sufficient guarantees that the separatists would not be prosecuted.

Sánchez’s PSOE, which views the amnesty law as necessary for the country to move forward, had its parliamentary spokesman, Patxi López, strongly defend the bill on Thursday.

In his speech, López noted the importance of backing the bill with references to the upcoming snap elections to be held in Catalonia on 12 May, noting that it marked the end of a “cycle of political decisions” through which the government aimed to find “reconciliation” in Catalonia.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)

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