After months of escalating their offensive against the amnesty law, the PP is considering for the first time to put the brakes on one of the paths of the escalation. This concerns the option to appeal before the Constitutional Court the processing of the law, a possibility that would open up if the Congress responds negatively or fails to respond to the institutional conflict that the Senate will present this Wednesday regarding the parliamentary procedure of the amnesty. The Popular Party leaves the door open to go to the court of guarantees, but they are unsure about whether to do so out of fear of a setback. Parliamentary sources acknowledge that they believe the Constitutional Court, which has a progressive majority, will validate the processing. Therefore, despite PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo insisting on Tuesday that the amnesty is “the greatest abuse of power since Franco’s regime,” the party is considering whether to appeal to the TC to avoid another misstep.
The Senate plenary will resolve on Wednesday the conflict of powers between the upper house and the Congress requested by the populares due to the amnesty law, which they describe as a “covert constitutional reform”, following the arguments of the Senate’s legal advisors, and therefore requires a qualified majority and not an absolute one. Once the conflict is approved, the lower house will have until May 11 to respond. If it responds negatively or remains silent, as parliamentary sources expect, the PP – through the Senate’s Board, led by the Popular Party – will have to decide whether to continue to the end and subsequently appeal to the Constitutional Court for a ruling. However, the problem is that a ruling by the court of guarantees before the law is in force could support the grace measure sooner than expected by the PP, thwarting their strategy.
Firstly, because if the Constitutional Court validates the parliamentary procedure of the amnesty, the populares would no longer be able to defend the discourse on which they have based such an exceptional measure as the clash between the Congress and the Senate. The populares are aware that the progressive majority of the court of guarantees works against them, and they fear a move that could end up benefiting the Government, as happened with the Venice Commission report, which, though critical, did not deliver the blow they were expecting to the law and the Executive took advantage of it in its favor. The populares mistrust the high court due to its progressive majority and have even gone so far as to call it “the cancer of democracy,” said PP’s Institutional Deputy Secretary Esteban González Pons, although he later retracted those words.
The PP also hesitates to take this step because a first ruling by the TC could complicate a subsequent constitutional appeal against the text, which the PP confirms they will present on the substance of the amnesty once the entire parliamentary procedure is concluded. Some popular parliamentary sources argue that an appeal on the form would be “sterile” once the high court examines the substance. The PP also fears that a ruling by the Constitutional Court in favor of the procedure could complicate the subsequent appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union. There are “doubts” within the parliamentary group as to whether a decision against the court of guarantees on the amnesty could undermine their subsequent strategy against the law. “A ruling against could seem to endorse the amnesty law,” they admit within the PP.
PP’s spokesperson in the Senate, Alicia García, left the door open on Tuesday and did not guarantee that the populares will ultimately go to the Constitutional Court after planting the conflict of powers between the two chambers. “The Congress has a 30-day deadline to respond. We will see how they respond and how they argue their response. When the time comes, we will announce the steps to be taken by the Popular Party,” García said in a press conference. Internally within the PP, there is debate and some sources are in favor of going to the court of guarantees, even despite the risk of not being granted the right, because renouncing that would be difficult to explain. Other popular sources have doubts about whether the Senate is obliged to go to the Constitutional Court after the clash between the two chambers. The parliamentary group debated on Tuesday what to do, but did not make a final decision. It is assumed that the final decision will not be made by the Senate, but by the PP’s executive committee chaired by Feijóo. Some argue that they must proceed “step by step”, although they all acknowledge that the Congress’s response will be negative or there simply will be no response.
The leader of the PP admitted on Monday that, in any case, the conflict of competencies that his party will provoke between the Senate and the Congress will have no practical effects, as it will not even delay the processing of the amnesty law. “The conflict of interests does not delay the processing of the law because we have two months for it,” explained Feijóo in an interview on Cadena COPE. “We will adhere to the deadlines. We will not commit any illegal act in our country. Once the law is approved, on May 14, the law will return to the Congress and the Congress will not address any of the Senate’s conflicts, and the law will be approved and will enter into force, I suppose, during the month of May,” specified the popular leader. Party sources admit that the conflict between the chambers serves to “keep the amnesty in the spotlight” with successive parliamentary debates on the law, hence their strategy of forcing it, even though it has no practical effects.
In the midst of the legal tangle, it is the socialists who are now pressuring the PP to go to the Constitutional Court. The PSOE spokesperson in the upper house, Juan Espadas, urged the PP on Monday to file the appeal. “If they do [the PP], the Constitutional Court will have the opportunity to pronounce on the form of the law’s processing. We will see if, it’s a bluff, the Popular Party will have legal advisors to advise them,” Espadas quipped. Meanwhile, the PP continues to weigh their options.
