Written by: Helen Lallos-Harrell; Edited by: Carmine Miklovis
On January 30th, Spain's lower house rejected an amnesty bill proposed by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in a 179 to 171 vote.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had championed the bill in exchange for parliamentary support of two Catalan separatist parties, Junts Party and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – both parties that had enabled Sánchez to form his minority leftist government last year. The bill would have granted amnesty to hundreds of Catalan separatists and set standards for granting amnesty for terrorism-related charges, for which several politicians of the Junts Party currently face investigation.
Despite supporting amnesty for Catalan separatists, Junts members voted against the bill in a last-minute reversal after disagreements over some of the bill’s details could not be reconciled. Justice Minister Félix Bolaños described it as "absolutely incomprehensible that Junts should vote against a law it had agreed on" while speaking with reporters.
The amnesty bill has faced heavy pushback from the Spanish public, approximately half of which support the conservative and far-right opposition parties. Anti-amnesty bill demonstrations across Spain reflect this attitude, with some protesters comparing Sánchez's behavior to that of a dictator.
The bill will return to debate in parliamentary committees before it returns to the lower house for another vote. In the meantime, Junts members want to continue negotiating the bill's terms.
When describing the party's decision to vote against it in parliament, Míriam Nogueras, a member of the Together for Catalunya party in the Congress of Deputies, noted, "there is no reason to approve an amnesty law with holes in it." Regardless of specifics, the bill's rejection and its highly controversial nature demonstrate the fragile state of Sánchez's minority-rule government and call into question its sustainability in the coming years.