Spain Notes, Nov 3: right angry over amnesty

1/ Esquerra and the Socialist Party did their part of the amnesty deal. The Minister for the PM’s Office, Bolaños, and ERC leader Junqueras smiled and shook hands (image above). “Amnesty for everyone”, tweeted Esquerra, contentedly. El País reported they are also getting a €15 billion regional debt write-off.

(Answering a question in the comments: an amnesty is a broad, collective, no crimes, nothing to see here measure. A pardon is a specific individual measure, that can only come after an investigation, trial, conviction and sentence.)

2/ Latest reports as I write this evening, though, are that Puigdemont and Junts, the other half of the Catalan separatists…are still holding out on a final sign-off on the deal. What more do they want?

3/ The reactions from the right were predictable. “Traitors..!”, tweeted the Vox Deputy First Minister of Castilla y León. “The PSOE federal committee”, tweeted the national party accountt, “is a criminal organisation that seeks the support of coup leaders and terrorists”.

4/ Conservative regional first ministers didn’t take kindly at all to the €15 billion debt write-off for Catalonia. “What about us…!?”, was the general cry in Murcia, Galicia, Andalusia or Valencia. Letting Puigdemont come back is one thing…but all those, OUR, billions…!!?

5/ The regional money might be the not-so-cunning sub-plot to get the right to forget about the amnesty part and Puigdemont coming back without going to jail, though. “Are the PP’s regional first ministers going to give up on their own debt write-offs after the confidence vote deal with Esquerra”, tweeted the PSOE comunications director.

6/ Slightly later on, Vox became even more vociferous, with their secreatary general Garriga announcing that Sánchez was now leading “a coup, from the PM’s Office, to finish off Spain, he has decided to put an end to our rule of law”.

7/ The far-right party also said it would force “urgent” regional cabinet meetings in the regional governments it was now a part of to take positions on the Catalan matter.

8/ Feijóo (PP) is pretty quiet on the conservative response so far, just tweeting “the rights of Spaniards must be protected”.

9/ Prime-time talk show host Pablo Motos had a go at the deal last night: “I feel ashamed to be Spanish”, he said. He thinks he would pretend to just be generically European, if asked.

10/ The right-wing press is fuming. “Sánchez has given it all up”, writes ABC, describing “total submission to Catalan secessionism”. It’s an “immoral and deeply unfair” agreement, says El Mundo, “that signifies, de facto, the destruction of equality among Spaniards and among regions”.

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