POLICY

They agreed on an Amnesty Law that brings Sánchez closer to a new period as president

Based on this understanding with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), the initiative will be presented imminently in the Congress of Deputies, which will launch the call for a session to debate the investiture of the PSOE candidate.

  • 31/10/2023 • 21:27

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) reached an agreement this Tuesday on the content of the Amnesty Law that will be presented shortly to Congress and are making "decisive" progress in the negotiations to form a majority in the Legislature to ensure the investiture of the socialist Pedro Sánchez as full president of the Government of Spain, it was reported in a statement. On this Tuesday afternoon, the current acting president of Spain, Sánchez, and the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonés, held a telephone conversation in which "they have unlocked the last details of the future amnesty law," reports the PSOE, which points out that both parties consider "their expectations met and their political principles regarding this rule satisfied." The information adds that based on this understanding, the Amnesty Law will be presented imminently in the Congress of Deputies, which will launch the call for a session to debate Sánchez's investiture, as commissioned at the end of September. King Felipe VI. This investiture agreement, as reported, will also contain "political and economic issues," reported the Europa Press and Ansa agencies, as well as the main Spanish media. This Saturday, during his speech before the Federal Committee, Sánchez openly defended, for the first time, the amnesty for those accused of the unilateral Catalan sovereignty process of 2017, and this Monday the Secretary of Organization of the Socialists, Santos Cerdán, met in Brussels with the former Catalan president and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont. After that meeting it was said that the negotiations were progressing "in the right direction", as PSOE sources confirmed today. The news of the agreement with ERC, it is estimated, will be an incentive to reach an understanding in the same sense with Junts. The plans that the socialists revealed today seek to ensure that the investiture can be held next week and, furthermore, that it be done in a first round, without the need for a second vote 48 hours later. That is, they plan to gather at least 176 votes in the precinct from the start.