“Is near”. This is how briefly the first vice president, María Jesús Montero, spoke this Tuesday in the corridors of the Senate, after journalists’ questions about the expected agreement for the amnesty law. The PSOE’s also ‘number two’ quickly left the offices of the Upper House and this time she did not speak with anyone. Because the slogan among the socialists and within the Government is clear: do not take for granted in public an agreement that in private they admit is closed until it is confirmed by Junts. This same Wednesday, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, said in an informal conversation with journalists covering his visit to Brazil that he accepts changes to the text to give more guarantees in response to the doubts of the independence party and has insisted that the announcement is next.
The experience of other negotiations at the limit with Carles Puigdemont’s party so far this term makes the PSOE exercise extreme caution until the last moment. But both Moncloa and Ferraz admit that, after many ups and downs and months of negotiation, the amnesty bill finally has enough support to be approved by the majority of Congress.
What is expected is that the announcement of this agreement will occur in a matter of hours and that the modifications that have been introduced to the text during the last conversations will even be explained in a hearing. Although the PSOE has insisted that they were not contemplating altering the articles regarding exceptions for terrorism crimes, sources at the highest level aware of the conversations do admit that in order to get Junts out of the ‘no’ vote, they have introduced “minimal” changes and, in any case, “of a strictly technical nature.”
What was committed by all parties during the negotiations in recent weeks was not to leak any of these modifications so as not to jeopardize an agreement that has been in danger for many moments. And until this Tuesday night both the socialists and the Catalan independentists fulfilled that part of the deal.
“I can tell you that the agreement is close,” said Pilar Alegría in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, referring to the necessary caution since it will be the parliamentary groups that will give details of the text for the Justice Commission. this coming Thursday. Asked about the changes, the Executive spokesperson limited herself to pointing out that the law will be “impeccable.”
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“This law entered Congress impeccably and will emerge impeccably, constitutionally, in accordance with European law and with a clear objective, to improve coexistence,” he added.
Since Junts contributed with its vote against in the Plenary to the bill not passing the Congress filter, contacts between both parties have not been interrupted but the negotiations came to a standstill for a few weeks. “The last vote opened a period of reflection that concerned us all, and as a result of that reflection I hope that next Thursday we can move forward with this law,” said the socialist spokesperson, Esther Peña, at a press conference on Monday.
If it goes ahead definitively this Thursday with the support of Junts and ERC, the bill could be debated and approved in plenary next week in an extraordinary plenary session or, failing that, the following week in an ordinary plenary session. The amnesty agreement will also precipitate the approval of new General State Budgets, extended from the beginning of the year, a step that will provide a minimum of political stability to a legislature on the brink of the abyss since the same election night of July 23.
Source: www.eldiario.es
