Catalan leader chides separatists after Pedro Sanchez’s amnesty bill is blocked

BRUSSELS — The president of Spain’s Catalonia region, Pere Aragonès, describes himself as an optimist.

Perhaps that’s why he didn’t seem overly troubled by the Spanish parliament’s failure to pass a landmark bill Tuesday granting a blanket amnesty to everyone involved in the Catalan independence movement — though he did gently scold the separatist lawmakers who pumped the brakes on the controversial legislation.

The amnesty bill was blocked by members of the pro-independence Junts party, whose votes are crucial for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist-led government to pass legislation in Spain’s fractured parliament.

“The latest developments are unfortunate and I call on all actors to work responsibly to make sure this law is approved,” Aragonès said in an interview with POLITICO in Brussels. “But I am confident that this will ultimately end well.”

Junts members withdrew their support for the bill shortly before the vote, arguing it didn’t fully protect them — including their de facto leader, former Catalan president and separatist chief Carles Puigdemont — from prosecution for alleged terrorism-related crimes.

The bill’s rejection represents a significant blow for Sánchez, who obtained Junts’ crucial support to form a government last November in exchange for moving forward with the amnesty legislation.

In the past few weeks, Sánchez accepted modifications to the draft bill to satisfy demands by the separatist lawmakers that their protection from prosecution be ironclad.

The text will now return for debate in a parliamentary commission before being voted on again by Spanish lawmakers in a few weeks. Junts is likely to use that time to pressure Sánchez’s minority government, which requires the party’s support to pass practically all legislation, to modify the text.

Aragonès, whose separatist Republican Left of Catalonia party voted in favor of the bill, said Junts would have to explain itself for delaying the passage of legislation that will benefit thousands of people he said had been “persecuted for their dedication to the Catalan independence movement.”

“This law is crucial because it returns a purely political matter that was criminalized to the realm of politics, to a space where it can be addressed through dialogue and negotiation,” he said. “It will let people like Carles Puigdemont come home, as well as so many others who have been prosecuted, or lived under the threat of persecution, for far too long.”

Don’t spurn Madrid’s offers

Aragonès said there were plenty of issues on which he disagreed with Sánchez — among them the Catalan’s desire to hold a new independence referendum.

“I will continue to push for a referendum, and not in the long term,” he said. “If it were up to me it would not be tomorrow at 6 a.m., but instead something we would have held 20 or 25 years ago, when I first joined the Catalan independence movement.”

But Aragonès insisted it was important to try to reach agreements with Madrid.

“Under the previous government, led by the [center-right] Popular Party, we were sent to prison; we should make the most out of the opportunities we have with the current government, which is willing to sit down and talk,” he said.

It’s unclear how much Sánchez will be willing to take from Catalan separatists moving forward.

Following Tuesday’s failed vote, Spanish Presidency Minister Félix Bolaños, who was charged with shepherding the bill, expressed exasperation, suggesting further talks may be complicated.

“The legislation was impeccable,” Bolaños said. “It is incomprehensible that Junts has voted against a law that had been agreed upon.”

Bolaños’ reaction reflects the Sánchez government’s weariness with its amnesty bill. The legislation that won the prime minister another term has also generated fierce public backlash and prompted hundreds of thousands of Spaniards to take to the streets in protest.

It has also been successfully used by the opposition conservative Popular Party to attack Sánchez in Brussels, where the draft bill has been debated in the European Parliament and discussed by the European Commission.

Aragonès said the Popular Party was making a mistake by attempting to turn Catalan independence into a polarizing issue in Europe.

“While the Popular Party governed Spain and the EU was asked to take a stand regarding police brutality in Catalonia, it rejected any input from Brussels and insisted that Catalan independence was an internal matter,” he said. “I think the party’s reputation is taking quite a hit by trying to get the EU institutions involved in its polarizing tactics now.”

“And Europe is facing too many challenges to have this topic be the focus of the debate in the Parliament or elsewhere right now.”