Pedro Sánchez defends amnesty in Catalonia in the name of "dialogue" and "forgiveness"

Spanish President Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday defended the amnesty bill that should benefit Catalan separatists prosecuted by the judiciary, stressing that "dialogue" and "forgiveness" are needed to heal the wounds after the 2017 secession attempt. 

"We will guarantee the unity of Spain through dialogue and forgiveness," the Socialist leader, who agreed to push for this amnesty demanded by the Catalan parties, in exchange for their indispensable support to achieve a new investiture in the vote scheduled for Thursday, told MPs. 

"The circumstances are what they are and we have to make a virtue out of necessity", acknowledged Sánchez, who until the eve of the legislative elections on 23 July was opposed to this measure, which generates a strong division in Spanish society.

But "the amnesty can help us to overcome the fracture that opened up in Catalonia" with the separatist attempt six years ago, "the greatest institutional crisis" experienced in Spain since the end of Franco's dictatorship in 1975, Sánchez described. 

During his speech, which lasted an hour and 45 minutes, the Socialist defended the constitutionality of this measure and called on the right-wing opposition, which on Sunday gathered hundreds of thousands of people in the streets against this measure, to show "responsibility". 

"The problem of the Popular Party" [PP, right-wing] and Vox [far right] "is not the amnesty for the leaders of the 'procés', the problem (...) is that they do not accept the electoral result" of the legislative elections of 23 July, launched Sánchez, who has presided over the Spanish government since 2018.

Despite being the winner of the elections, ahead of the Socialists, the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, failed to achieve a sufficient majority to be invested by Parliament. 

Registered on Monday in the Congress of Deputies, the amnesty bill covers crimes committed "with the intention of claiming, promoting or procuring the secession or independence of Catalonia" since 2012, mainly those related to the convulsive autumn of 2017. 

As soon as it is adopted, the new law will allow the return to Spain of Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the secession attempt, six years after he fled to Belgium to evade Spanish justice. 

Pedro Sánchez also took the opportunity to announce economic measures such as the extension of the VAT deduction on food, various tax measures, free public transport for young people and the unemployed, the raising of the average income threshold and the implementation of the reduction of the working day.