Spain Notes, Nov 2: amnesty anger + republic
Judges: deal "destroys the rule of law". ABC: Sánchez "has crossed the red line".
1/ PSOE director of communications Ion Antolín argued on Twitter that the image of Puigdemont and the PSOE number three man sitting below the giant photo of the rebellious October 1 ballot boxes was fake…because it wasn’t the cropped version the party had distributed, in which you can’t really see them.
2/ What Antena 3 had actually done, in this case, on TV, was add context to the official photo by doing a kind of pull-out shot that showed viewers what the small corner of image in the official photo really was: the giant rebellious ballot boxes, which is what the PSOE was trying to hide.
3/ Feijóo (PP) is demanding Sánchez call elections again instead of doing the amnesty deal with Puigdemont. But the right can't stop it...the vote numbers are still 178-172...so they're just repeating the arguments and frames they didn't win the general election in July with.
Comment: the right in Spain needs new frames and a new strategy
4/ A judges’ association, the APM, has come out against the amnesty, stating that this would “place us at the beginning of the end of our democracy, break the rules of the 1978 Constitution and destroy the rule of law”.
5/ Esquerra leader Junqueras tweeted: “Today we can say that we are closer to addressing the resolution of the existing political conflict between Catalonia and the state under better conditions”, and said “democratic strength” was the key to another vote on independence.
6/ For an idea of the rhetoric on the far-right, take a look at this tweet by Vox MEP Tertsch on Conde Pumpido, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court: “This is Conde-Pumpido, he will go down in history for being the total enemy of law, justice, the nation, dignity and democracy. He will go down in history as a great traitor to the country for his miserable complicity with the coup leader Pedro Sánchez. He deserves lifelong contempt”.
7/ The deal also apparently includes handing over full mangement of local commuter rail services in Catalonia, called Rodalies, to the regional government. El País reports state rail workers at Renfe are not happy with the idea.
8/ Sumar, which is about to formally become half of the renewed left-wing coalition government, defended a republic “not only as recognition of the past but also as a component of the future”.
Comment: Princess Leonor vs. Puigdemont
9/ El Mundo: “The negotiations for the reappointment of Pedro Sánchez reflect a concept of politics and a model for the country that are contrary to the modern, civic, liberal Spain that its citizens share and aspire to”.
10/ ABC writes that “the PSOE has gone for it”, “the Socialist Party has crossed the red line” and “agrees to break our coexistence deal”.
Let's get to 1,000 paying subscribers. Proper independence: