Spanish PM called a ‘traitor’ as parliament passes Catalan amnesty bill

Spain’s Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez was branded a “traitor” after parliament passed a controversial amnesty for Catalan leaders who unlawfully attempted to bring about the region’s independence in 2017.

Mr Sánchez said the amnesty for Catalan separatists would help to unite Spain but opposition parties reminded him that he had previously said such a step was impossible and unconstitutional.

In a stormy session of Spain’s lower-house Congress, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative main opposition People’s Party (PP), accused Mr Sánchez of “lying” and “laughing in people’s faces”.

Mr Feijóo said the amnesty was “political corruption” whose sole purpose was to keep the Socialist prime minister’s minority coalition in power, thanks to support from Catalan parties.

Under Mr Feijóo’s leadership, the PP became the largest party in Congress after last year’s election, but Mr Sánchez managed to cobble together a slender majority with the backing of Left-wing, Catalan, Basque and other regional groupings.

The seven MPs from the Catalan party Junts, whose leader Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium to avoid arrest after declaring Catalonia’s secession from Spain, supported Mr Sánchez as prime minister in return for negotiating the terms of an amnesty.

Having been passed by Congress previously and then rejected by the PP-dominated Senate, the amnesty was approved on Thursday with 177 votes in favour and 172 against.

As Mr Sánchez’s name was called by the speaker for his oral vote, there were calls of “traitor”.

“You are going to pardon your partners just to stay in power,” Santiago Abascal, leader of the hard-Right Vox, said while looking at the government bench.

Mr Abascal argued that the amnesty “legitimises political violence” and also accused Mr Sánchez of “attempting to cover up corruption”.

The embattled prime minister last month took a five-day leave of absence from his duties to consider his future, after a judge said he would investigate allegations of corruption and influence peddling against his wife, Begoña Gómez.

He said he would stay in office in order to regenerate democracy and accused conservative elites in politics, the judiciary and the media for smearing his wife’s reputation.

Mr Sánchez’s U-turn on amnesty for Catalan separatists sparked a series of daily protests outside the Socialist Party’s Madrid headquarters last autumn. At least 400 people are expected to benefit from the measure, which will paralyse judicial proceedings against individuals accused of participating in the unlawful referendum of October 1 2017.

‘Today is a victory for Catalonia’

Key among those to be offered a reprieve is Mr Puigdemont, who is being investigated for embezzling public funds and for terrorism-related offences as the alleged leader of a separatist protest movement accused of violence.

Mr Puigdemont has said he will be in Barcelona for the debate to elect a new president of Catalonia once the region’s new parliament sits next month, after elections held on May 12.

A source from Mr Puigdemont’s team told The Telegraph that the former Catalan president, who has since served as an MEP, “will return for sure, whether he is arrested or not”.

The judge investigating Mr Puigdemont in Spain’s supreme court has requested the application of a European arrest warrant against the politician, but the Catalan leader has successfully fought against detention in Belgian and EU courts.

The court will now receive a request from Mr Puigdemont’s lawyers to drop all proceedings – but could attempt to challenge the constitutional basis of the amnesty. Mr Puigdemont was due to make a statement live on social media on Thursday evening.

Oriol Junqueras, Mr Puigdemont’s deputy premier in 2017, celebrated the passage of the amnesty law in Congress on Thursday.

“Today is a victory for Catalonia, for all Catalans and democrats around the world,” said Mr Junqueras, who remained in Spain after the referendum and spent the best part of four years in prison, before he and six other Catalan politicians were pardoned by Mr Sánchez’s cabinet. He remains barred from holding public office.

Mr Junqueras recalled those who were “beaten by police batons” when voting in the 2017 wildcat ballot and called on Spain’s government to allow a legal referendum on Catalonia’s status. Mr Sánchez has promised that he will not agree to a referendum.