“Spanish citizens are no longer equal before the law” | EUROtoday

On Nov 26, 2023

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Lhe state of affairs has been tense in Spain since Pedro Sanchez negotiated an settlement and an amnesty with the Catalan separatists. The Popular Party (PP, conservative) calls on the European Union to make sure that the Sanchez authorities respects the rule of legislation. The European Commission has studied the assorted texts. Meeting with Dolors Montserrat, head of the PP delegation to the European Parliament, MEP since 2017 and former Minister of Health within the Rajoy authorities (2016-2018).

Point : Why is the settlement concluded between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the Catalan separatists of Carles Puigdemont a European drawback and never simply inside to Spain?

Dolors Montserrat: There are a number of problematic factors on this political settlement, all of which open a breach within the rule of legislation. Pedro Sanchez made a political settlement to acquire solely seven votes within the Cortes (the Spanish decrease home) and stay in energy. He claims that it’s to revive nationwide concord, coexistence and unity of our society. It’s unsuitable. He did this for private comfort. The deal supplies immunity for about 1,400 individuals convicted by courts over the previous decade. They will due to this fact erase all crimes, reminiscent of corruption or embezzlement, the coup d’état by the separatists and terrorism.

What terrorism?

In 2019, through the “democratic tsunami”, they blocked Barcelona airport, roads, highways. They attacked the police in Barcelona. This is not only an amnesty legislation, it’s a self-amnesty. In this case, criminals write the legislation. This signifies that Spanish residents are now not equal earlier than the legislation. So we now have 1,400 privileged individuals, top notch residents, who’ve their crimes erased and are thought-about superior to 47 million abnormal Spanish residents. This is a European drawback as a result of Article 2 of the Union Treaty protects equality between residents.

The second problematic level is that this notion of “lawfare” [contraction des termes law (loi) et warfare (guerre), NDLR] launched into the settlement. It is an indictment of the judges, thought-about to have made choices subservient to the targets of political elimination. It will not be honest ! In doing so, Pedro Sanchez buys into the thought of the separatists that Spain will not be a democracy. We are, quite the opposite, the most effective instance in Europe and maybe on the earth of a dictatorship having made a peaceable transition to democracy. They need to arrange a fee of inquiry into the judges, into what the judges have finished. It’s unimaginable !

Like in Poland…

Exactly ! Judges will grow to be criminals and criminals will grow to be judges. To implement this settlement, Pedro Sanchez entrusted the Ministry of the Presidency, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Relations with Parliament to the identical particular person, Felix Bolano. However, Felix Bolano is the person who negotiated and signed the settlement with the ERC separatists. He writes the settlement, indicators it and applies it by concentrating all powers in defiance of the separation of powers. Here too, it’s a precept protected by the Union Treaty which is flouted. They need to put an finish to the independence of justice. It’s horrible.

This amnesty legislation is now being launched into the legislative course of. But is it constitutional?

Precisely, in 2021, the 2 Catalan independence events, the ERC and Puigdemont’s JxCat, had proposed an amnesty legislation to the Spanish Parliament however the authorized consultants of the Chamber rejected it for unconstitutionality. The Secretary General of Parliament, a senior civil servant, due to this fact dismissed it. However, the socialists appointed an individual who was a part of their authorities to this place. And as if by likelihood, the argument of unconstitutionality is that this time dismissed… However, two years in the past, the socialists joined us in rejecting this unconstitutional proposal.

The settlement additionally supplies for a system to observe its software…

This is the third drawback: the settlement between the socialists and the Catalan separatists supplies that the federal government’s choices will likely be evaluated by a committee made up of worldwide mediators and that this assembly will happen each month in Geneva. So, if I summarize, a authorities indicators an settlement in Brussels with fugitives, an settlement which will likely be managed by worldwide mediation in Geneva and it could not be a European drawback? Sorry, however in the event you introduce worldwide management over the motion of the Spanish authorities, you might be implying that Spain will not be a democracy in its personal proper… Which is fake: Spain is a democracy.

What do you anticipate from the European Commission at this stage?

With the Christian Democrats of the EPP, we first ask the establishments to listen to the anger of Spanish civil society who’re marching within the streets in opposition to this settlement. Protests are rising from in all places: the 4 associations of judges in Spain, the 2 associations representing prosecutors, the Council of the Judiciary, the Supreme Court, all attorneys, tax inspectors, individuals of tradition, and residents , no matter their ideology, defend the rule of legislation collectively. And extra importantly for me, Felipe Gonzales, the previous socialist Prime Minister, a bit the equal of François Mitterrand, additionally pleaded in opposition to this amnesty legislation and this settlement.

READ ALSO Pedro Sanchez, architect or demolisher of Spanish unity? So the very first thing we ask is that the Commission listens to Spanish civil society. Then we must act. Commissioner Didier Reynders wrote a letter to the Sanchez authorities even earlier than the amnesty legislation, simply on the phrases of the settlement. It’s essential to us. We demand that the rule of legislation be examined in Spain, that there be no double requirements, as we ourselves did within the EPP after we dismissed Viktor Orban’s Fidesz.

The large query immediately is the place the European socialists are. Where does Olaf Scholz stand on this debate? Does he defend the rule of legislation in Poland and Hungary however not in Spain? Where are the socialists in France, in Italy?

The representatives of French socialists within the European Parliament say that this entire story is only a revenge of the Partido Popular in opposition to Pedro Sanchez since you didn’t win the July elections…

All these faces demonstrating in Spain, it isn’t simply the Partido Popular, it is Spanish society that’s anxious. And they hope that Europe will come to defend the rule of legislation in Spain.

The present majority on which the inauguration of Pedro Sanchez relies, nevertheless, appears fragile. How do you see the subsequent 4 years of the mandate?

I see a variety of instability. Carles Puigdemont will train everlasting blackmail on Pedro Sanchez who, to remain in energy, is sort of able to promoting a bit of Spain. This is why all democrats in Europe, no matter their origin, needs to be collectively to defend the rule of legislation. In opinion polls, Spain is the second nation in Europe after Luxembourg the place residents have the most effective emotions in the direction of Europe. If we disappoint these individuals, they may transfer to the far proper or the far left.

The left criticizes the federal government of Mariano Rajoy for having made errors in 2017 within the administration of the Catalan drawback by refusing to barter a referendum and inserting Catalonia beneath supervision. What do it’s a must to say to them?

Listen, Mariano Rajoy advised Carles Puigdemont: “Don’t do this crazy thing, don’t put on the table this idea of a Catalan independence referendum when you know it’s illegal. » Once again, the law is the same for everyone. No one is above the law. If we leave the legal framework, we slide into totalitarianism. The Spanish judicial system has restored the application of the law. This is what made it possible to reestablish peaceful coexistence. It was not Pedro Sanchez who, on the contrary, broke the harmony by creating two categories of citizens through this crazy amnesty.

However, in Spanish history there has already been an amnesty. A law in 1977 provided amnesty for crimes from the Franco period. Why would this be any different?

We cannot compare the two amnesties. In 1977, amnesty was the condition for switching from dictatorship to democracy. Now our democracy is forty-five years old. No amnesty is justified, especially when the amnesty law is written by those who have been convicted.

Do you think that Spanish unity will be in danger again if the Sanchez government organizes the referendum provided for in article 92 of the Spanish Constitution?

Article 2 of the Spanish Constitution stipulates “the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards”. We can’t due to this fact set up a referendum for under a area which wish to separate. I hope we do not have to return to that. Spanish society demonstrates that it’s stronger than the maneuvers of Sanchez and his mates who need to break Spain.

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