Opposition delays as Sánchez rushes through criminal reforms to please Catalan separatists
🔊 If Vox and the PP think this is a left-wing assault on the Constitution or the state or the rule of law, what are they waiting for?
🔊 AUDIO
Republican Catalan Left (Esquerra) wants another referendum on the independence of Catalonia from Spain. Well, I say “another” but the first one was a sham vote, so it would be a first, if Sánchez somehow managed to get around the problem of Article 2 of the Spanish Constitution, the one that talks about the “unbreakable unity” of the nation, which is what Rajoy always argued was the core of the refusal last time: not even he as Prime Minister could allow it becuase the Constitution said “unbreakable unity” and that hadn’t been changed.
So this would be another attempt of some sort and Esquerra has published its concept today: they want all over 16s to vote with a minimum turnout of 50% and a minimum “yes” vote of 55%. Junqueras explained on TV this weekend that the purpose of these negotiations with the PSOE, which have caused such a scandal this week among the political elites, was so "they cannot persecute" the people involved in the declaration of independence in 2017, so that they can then continue on with their broader plan, which is: "amnesty, self-determination and a fairer Catalan republic".
“The crime of sedition is an injustice”, he said: “the current crime of public disorder is an injustice, this supposed crime of misuse of public funds is clearly an injustice”. It’s all an injustice. All of the crimes the Catalan separatists were tried and convicted of are an injustice. From that point of view, all of the justice in courts in Spain is unfair and everything Junqueras says while imagining his future independent Catalan republic is fair.
Sánchez thinks that’s a good idea because he wants to stay on as Prime Minister so he is rushing all of this through parliament before Christmas. Why such a rush, now, though, before the holidays? One Popular Party MP on the justice commission tweeted tonight that she had been texted a meeting notification for tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.
“We have decided”, said Sánchez at a socialist party rally on Sunday: “and it’s a high-level political decision, to rescue Catalonia from tension and confrontation. I know that the decisions we have to take are risky, but there is no other option, there is no other path, the tension and political debate must be brought back to the political arena and taken out of the courts”. Junqueras is good, the courts are bad, so just change the Criminal Code for your political friends.
The PP and Vox think this reform of the crimes of sedition, the misuse of public funds and public disorder to suit the Catalan separatists is a major constitutional scandal and want Europe to get involved, along Polish lines. “It’s a coup against the rule of law”, said Abascal on Monday morning. He says Vox still wants a motion of no confidence against Sánchez.
The PP is sticking with its call for asking a PM they are accusing of “authoritarian drift” for early elections. “Sánchez would love this motion of no confidence”, said PP leader Feijóo today: “like he loves every vote that goes to the parties that are promoting it, because every vote for those parties means he is closer to staying on as Prime Minister”. I have asked in Congress this evening and the reply at about 7:30 p.m. was that no party had yet tabled a motion of no confidence.
How many ordinary voters in Cádiz or Torre Pacheco could tell you who Montesquieu was? Six years after Puigdemont’s declaration of independence in Catalonia, five years after Sánchez first became Prime Minister, three years after a pandemic that left at least 100,000 dead, who is going to care about a few top-level political favours for Junqueras and the Catalan separatists or how many judges vote for another judge at an elite-level meeting?
If the PP and Vox want voters in six or twelve months time to believe this is a major scandal, if they want to use it as electoral ammunition, they would do well to go for the motion of no confidence against Sánchez now, even knowing they will lose because they don’t have the votes. They have to make their mark and if the Prime Minister has decided to try to ram it all through before Christmas, then they need to respond now too. Otherwise, how will they argue when those elections come around that it was so important? The future of the country was at stake, good lady, but we didn’t even bother to force a debate in parliament about it for a couple of days back in the winter.
Subscribe now:
🔥 Understand the stories changing Spain better
📝 All the articles + 🔊 audio + 💬 WhatsApp chat
💪 Guarantee this independent reporting & analysis