The PP has reacted immediately to the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the Amnesty Law showing “absolute respect.” “The PP does not interpret rulings based on whether it likes them more or less,” sources from the Popular Party say. However, the PP leadership warns that this is not the “end of the debate” because now the Spanish courts have the power to directly apply the Amnesty Law. Additionally, the PP maintains its rejection of “criminal privileges” for the separatists.
Both Miguel Tellado, the party’s secretary general, and José María Aznar have been the first two public voices to speak out. Both did so within the framework of the EPP Forum Libertas organized in Madrid by the European People’s Party to discuss the challenges of democracy – 60 political formations from 42 countries participate.
“We will continue defending equality before the law, the unity of Spain, and zero tolerance against all kinds of political, moral, and institutional corruption,” said Tellado, who warns about the scope of the ruling, which is limited to resolving “only the specific doubts raised by the Spanish courts,” without entering “into the substance of the matter” and without judging “the very serious facts that Sánchez amnestied in exchange for seven votes.”
At this point, PP sources specify that the ruling “was limited to a very specific analysis” because “it does not examine constitutionality, nor political opportunity, nor does it issue a ruling on the entire Amnesty Law.” It should be remembered that the CJEU has ruled on preliminary questions raised by the National Court and the Court of Auditors (that is, legal doubts about the fit of the Law within European Law).
In any case, Tellado has shown “absolute respect” for the ruling: “It would be desirable that Sánchez’s Government and its surroundings also did so.” Additionally, the PP secretary general has attacked the Government for how the Amnesty was forged because it was Pedro Sánchez’s payment to Junts to secure his re-election as Prime Minister: “Criminal privileges in exchange for an investiture.” “We will continue believing that no president should trade power for impunity,” he added.
After this ruling, the Popular Party analyzes the past and considers that the separatist project was “a very serious irresponsibility committed by separatism” since, ten years later, Catalonia “is trying to recover from that great toxic process,” but they also look to the future. “Our project offers Catalonia to open a new time that allows us to talk only about what Catalans need: more housing, more doctors, fewer taxes, and more security,” the same sources conclude. “Catalonia does not need more social division nor more attacks on institutionalism,” Tellado added.
The PP believes the debate is not only legal but whether Sánchez “can negotiate criminal privileges” in exchange for the investiture
In any case, for the PP, the Government “is wrong” if it presents “this ruling as the end of the debate” because it was never “only legal,” but rather about whether Pedro Sánchez “can negotiate criminal privileges in exchange for a parliamentary majority.” The Popular Party points out that it is “morally unacceptable” that Sánchez gave in to the Amnesty “against his word” because in the 2023 electoral campaign he committed to rejecting the pardon and “against the will of the majority of Spaniards.”
It should be remembered that the PP filed several appeals before the Constitutional Court against the Amnesty Law and has been very critical until now, although it is true that relations with Junts have improved to the point of coinciding in numerous votes together and aligning in the call for elections.
Aznar
“The seditious aggression against the Law must not go unpunished”
José María Aznar has also wanted to speak about the Amnesty, although without mentioning it. In this regard, he has shown his disagreement. “On a day like today, very especially, it is worth remembering that seditious aggression against the Law must not go unpunished, much less be rewarded,” he stated.
Read more Junts demands the Constitutional Court to resolve the protection appeals before going on vacation
“In Spain, we know well that certain nationalist pretensions harbor the hope of shaking the foundations of the Union,” he added, referring to the separatist parties, and linked Spain and the European Union: “Today is a very good moment to reiterate that when the constitutional integrity of a member state is attacked, the victim is the entire European institutional system.” “The unity of Spain, of France, of Germany, of Italy are the foundation of the unity of Europe,” he concluded.
Aznar also delivered these words in a speech in which he emphasized that the PP must seek the political center. “Today, more than ever, we are invited to surrender to any extremism, left or right. And that would be to abdicate in favor of lying simplifications. In my opinion, the center is more than a place, an attitude, a commitment to moderation,” he said.
In his view, the five traits of the center are the willingness to reconcile without ever giving up constructive debate; the preference for reform over rupture; the commitment to gradual transformations and to institutions; trust in the fundamental agreements among citizens of good faith; and tolerance with the irreducible dissenter who respects the law.
From Catalonia, the spokesperson in the Parliament, Lorena Roldán, also pointed out “absolute respect” for the CJEU ruling but recalled that the Amnesty law “was not born from a state decision nor did it respond to the general interest of Spaniards” but was the “political price” Sánchez paid to Junts to stay in power. In this context, the Catalan PP leader referred to President Salvador Illa, indicating that he strongly rejected this measure before the arithmetic after the general elections made him change his mind.
The Popular spokesperson wanted to focus her reflection on what happened in Catalonia, understanding that for the PP “the amnesty cannot erase what happened in the years of the ‘procés’, the attempt to break the rule of law, the disconnection laws that trampled the rights of the opposition, the blocked roads (…) leading to a deeply fractured society.” Roldán did not speak of opening a new time – the national leadership does – but that the Catalan PP “will continue working with all firmness” so that what happened during the ‘procés’ does not happen again.
The spokesperson indicated that those who protagonized it maintain that “they will do it again” in a political context, according to her analysis, in which “they have been strengthened by Pedro Sánchez’s concessions.”
Tellado accuses the Government of being “socialist populist” and “authoritarian”
Miguel Tellado, secretary general of the PP, participated in the second and last day of the EPP Forum Libertas organized in Madrid by the European People’s Party to discuss the challenges of democracy – 60 political formations from 42 countries participate – and defined Pedro Sánchez’s Government as “socialist populist” and “authoritarian” that has spent eight years “repeatedly attacking the foundations of democracy.”
In this regard, before international leaders, Tellado denounced that the current Government “does not respect the separation of powers, unleashes campaigns against judges, against the free press or against the democratic opposition, is at odds with Parliament and has declared itself in rebellion against the General Courts and breaks the Constitution” by going four years without approving budgets.
“A government that has allied itself with the worst enemies of freedom, including the heirs of a terrorist group. A government corrupt to the core,” added the PP secretary general.
