The PSOE is divided on the amnesty motions
The motions on amnesty that are being voted on in State institutions have caused a division effect in the PSOE. There is no unanimity in the position. In the Parliament of Catalonia, the PSC said it will vote against all ERC and Junts resolutions on the amnesty. In the cities of Madrid and Toledo, however, this initiative has been avoided, as in Badajoz or La Rioja.. And in places like Ares (A Coruña), 3 of the 6 socialist councilors chose to abstain.
For weeks now, the Government and the PSOE have been preparing the ground for an agreement with ERC and Junts on the amnesty. An agreement that allows the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. At the same time, the PP promoted motions in city councils and regional chambers against the processing of an Amnesty Law or generalized non-individualized pardon.. Added to this is that ERC and Junts have agreed in the Catalan Parliament on an initiative according to which they will not invest Pedro Sánchez if the socialist candidate does not first commit to “working” for a referendum, in addition to approving the amnesty.. The socialists reject this approach and staged it with a joint statement from the PSC and the PSOE.
Pedro Sánchez's roadmap is based on “dialogue to overcome the division and not to deepen the rupture and discord,” stated the note from the PSC and the PSOE.. And there is a formula about amnesty, but not a consultation: “There is no possible progress along that path.”. As this newspaper has reported, it has been clear for some time in La Moncloa that there would be a repeat election rather than a consultation.. “The path is that of coexistence and cohesion, understanding and the economic and social progress of Catalonia and the rest of Spain, always within the Constitution.”
These amnesty proposals are forcing the socialists to have to position themselves before knowing what Sánchez is negotiating with the independentists. A Sánchez who yesterday, in a meeting with social democratic MEPs, insisted that he will repeat the government “in a short time”. In Madrid, with former minister Reyes Maroto as leader, and in Toledo, with former mayor Milagros Tolón – current president of the Federal Committee of the PSOE – they did not reject the amnesty. The municipal group of the PSOE in Toledo is very close to Pedro Sánchez in a community where the party is led by Emiliano García-Page, who disagrees publicly and conspicuously on the issue of dialogue with the independentists and the concessions.
«The PSOE was always in the Constitution. When the PSOE governs, the equality of all citizens is guaranteed, rights are expanded and most importantly: the Constitution is complied with throughout Spain,” defended Reyes Maroto in Madrid.. The PP clung to that “was” to censure the socialists, pointing out that they are no longer socialists. In Toledo, the PSOE tried to counteract the PP initiative by presenting a “for coexistence and equality in Spain” that proposed “continuing to make dialogue, within the constitutional framework, the tool to improve coexistence in Spain.”. PP and Vox knocked it down.
A peculiar case occurred in Ares. In this municipality of A Coruña, the mayor, Julio Iglesias, a socialist, gave his councilors freedom to vote. Three abstained, while the mayor and two other colleagues rejected the PP initiative.
In statements to Europa Press, Iglesias explained this freedom on the basis that “neither the PSOE has approved any resolution on the amnesty nor did the Government put any project on it nor was it in the PSOE's electoral program.”