Law of impunity: an x-ray of the parliamentary bill for an organic law on amnesty for institutional, political and social normalisation in Catalonia

Abstract

On November 13, the text of the Proposition of Organic Law on Amnesty for Institutional, Political and Social Normalization in Catalonia was announced, which, it seems, will support the parliamentary groups of PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Junts, PNV, Bildu and BNG, which have a narrow absolute majority of Congress. A text of particular importance which, all said, is proposed to be dealt with as a matter of urgency, thus shortening the time for its debate and amendment. In essence, we are facing a text negotiated with the “opacity of legal business”, alien “to the principle of advertising that has to characterize the parliamentary function”, as Professor Victor Vazquez has pointed out, which will now receive formal approval, at least by the lower house, which will be approved in the first place, where we will listen to mixed speeches, but with no greater vocation to submit it to a real debate. It is to be expected, on the other hand, the radical rejection of the Senate, where the PP enjoys a large majority, and will try to delay as much as possible the processing, showing a harmful parliamentary filibusterism. In any case, our unbalanced bicameralism in favor of Congress will make this chamber, sooner rather than later, the one that has the last word. Or, rather, the penultimate, because the law will surely be appealed to the Constitutional Court, although we can expect little from a Court that, in order to accommodate judges with high political profile, today has more features of a third political chamber than a court.