Summary of the day
Pedro Sánchez is on the verge of winning congressional backing for a second term as Spain’s prime minister after securing the support of Catalan separatist parties by agreeing to a controversial amnesty. A vote is expected tomorrow.
In an investiture debate filled with personal critiques, leaders of Spain’s competing political factions argued over the country’s future, and especially the planned amnesty.
In a lengthy speech, Sánchez outlined his policy agenda and defended the controversial amnesty deal. The amnesty will not be an attack on the constitution, he emphasised, but a sign of its strength.
The conservative People’s party’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo made a case against the amnesty deal reached between the socialists and Junts. “No to amnesty, no to ignoring the victims of separatism, no to erasing crimes of corruption and terrorism,” he said.
Sánchez also took aim at Feijóo for calling for a fresh election. “I don’t understand why you’re so keen to hold a new election if you won the last one,” he said.
The draft bill, tabled by the PSOE on Monday, is titled the organic amnesty law for institutional, political and social normalisation in Catalonia. Its beneficiaries include 309 people who face criminal lawsuits and 73 police officers who face criminal action over their conduct on the days before and after the second referendum.
Didier Reynders, the EU commissioner for justice, said this morning he has received a draft of the amnesty legislation and that the European Commission is in the process of analysing the text.
Pedro Sánchez also took aim at Alberto Núñez Feijóo for calling for a fresh election.
I’m really struck by all this stuff about an electoral repetition, Mr Feijóo. I don’t understand why you’re so keen to hold a new election if you won the last one. It’s very odd. But I’ll tell you something, Mr Feijóo – and that’s that election results should be respected and elections shouldn’t be repeated.
