Amnesty debate reaches European parliament amid calls from the right to 'watch' Sánchez 

The amnesty agreed between Catalan pro-independence parties and Spain's Socialists arrives in the European Parliament on Wednesday amid calls from the right for the European Commission to "closely monitor" Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his actions.  

The Socialists maintain that the new amnesty law "disables" the unilateral path towards independence and instead opens a door to the political resolution of the conflict. 

Pro-independence parties Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and Junts agree that the rule of law in Spain is threatened, not by the amnesty but rather by the "anti-democratic" actions of the Supreme Court. 

"We celebrate the fact that after six years it has been discovered that the Catalan conflict was not an internal affair," Junts MEP Toni Comín told the Catalan News Agency (ACN), pointing out the irony that Catalan pro-independence parties have long called on more European intervention in the conflict with the Spanish state. 

Comín called the debate an "absurd and ridiculous propaganda operation," while ERC MEP Diana Riba said the "amnesty law, which is a democratic tool, has been mixed up with the question of the rule of law." 

Riba criticized Spanish right-wing political parties for using the European institutions "for their day-to-day politics in the [Spanish] state and not for European politics." 

Catalonia's Foreign Minister Meritxell Serret welcomed the debate and said it would "deepen the democratic discussion."  

"Any opportunity to present arguments in favor of the amnesty law is positive," she added.   

Serret, who is on an official visit to the Balkans, said the debate showed there was an international interest in understanding the law. She defended the constitutionality of the bill, insisting that the text is "solid and accurate."

"It is a tool to end the political conflict in terms of repression and shows that we can take a step forward in the democratic solution through negotiation," she added. 

Sound the alarm 

The European People's Party (EPP) has been one of the main drivers of the debate, together with Renew, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID), titling it: 'Threats to the rule of law as a consequence of the government agreement in Spain.' 

EPP president Manfred Weber expressed his "concern" about the situation in Spain, while Dolors Montserrat, a Catalan MEP belonging to the group said the debate "is not intended to question the legitimacy of the Sánchez government," but "to sound the alarm for the European Commission to closely monitor" a Socialist government elected "in exchange for seven votes from the separatists."  

Progress and dialogue 

The Socialists, on the other hand, accused the Spanish PP of "not digesting the electoral results of July 23, when a majority of Spaniards said they wanted a government of progress and dialogue." 

Iratxe García, a member of the Spanish Socialists and leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European parliament emphasized that Sánchez's reelection as PM received the support of eight out of the eleven political forces in Congress and the amnesty law will be debated "in the place where it belongs," that is, in the Spanish parliament, because all parties "can have their say."