The PP will propose an institutional clash between the Senate and Congress over the processing of the amnesty law, in what is an unprecedented scenario. The latest report from the Senate lawyers doubts that the pardon measure is constitutional, but denies that its parliamentary development can be blocked by the Upper House Table. Also remember that there is the possibility of resorting to “a conflict between constitutional bodies” referring to both Chambers, although if so, the person who can request said institutional clash is the parliamentary group of a specific party and not the Table. In this case, the Popular Party. However, even in that scenario, Congress may not respond and the rule would continue its course due to administrative silence, which would not delay the deadlines either.
The struggle between the two chambers is resolved by holding a plenary session in the Senate to require Congress to withdraw the amnesty law. This vote, which is carried out to ask the lower house to appeal to the Constitutional Court and request the precautionary suspension of the rule, will go ahead with the absolute majority of the popular votes, and will foreseeably be held in the plenary session on April 9. But the amnesty has an absolute majority in Congress, in addition to the favorable report of the senior lawyer, so this PP strategy will torpedo its path even more, although without a concrete result. It is the first time in democracy that a conflict between bodies that affects Congress and Senate will be requested.
It was the spokesperson for the PP in the Senate, Senator Alicia García, who announced on the platform of the chamber the intention of the PP to raise this conflict. “In the Senate, as in Congress, national sovereignty resides and the Spaniards and the will of the people are represented. And the social majority of the Popular Party is reflected,” García indicated. “The Senate is the representation of all the territories. We are not second-class parliamentarians,” the spokesperson added during her speaking turn in an interview addressed to the Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Justice, Félix Bolaños. The socialist leader responded harshly afterwards. “They have turned the Senate into a dilatory and obstructionist chamber, when it should contribute to improving standards. All of us who are deputies have also been elected by the citizens,” replied Bolaños, who has accused the popular party of wanting to “please the extreme right” with said strategy.
In parallel, and in an “unusual” situation, both in form and substance, the PP voted this Tuesday in favor of accepting the amnesty law from Congress for processing, despite being against its content. The PSOE, on the other hand, says it did not participate in the vote in favor of the grace measure, although the Socialists are in favor of its application. Its rejection has been counted by the legal services of the Upper House as a no. The Popular Party has a majority in the Table, so the bill continues its path until at least May 16, four days after the Catalan elections of 12-M. The text could be brought to plenary session even sooner, according to PP parliamentary sources. But how is it possible that the popular ones have shown their inclination for the norm to continue its course and that the socialists have resisted? “This is the world upside down,” say PP sources at the Table. “It’s a trap,” respond sources from the PSOE in the organ. These are some keys to what happened this Tuesday:
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Board Meeting. At the meeting of the Board held this Tuesday, a “proposal for admission to processing” drafted by the Senate lawyers, with an absolute majority from the PP, on the amnesty law approved on Thursday by an absolute majority in Congress, was debated. This text includes the reasoning presented by the legal services in a report requested in January by the Board, with a popular majority. On Monday, it was concluded in that opinion that the Board has the obligation to process the rule without the possibility of blocking it, but at the same time the lawyers censure the content of the grace measure. Regarding it, they say that it presents “questions of constitutionality” and may involve a “covert constitutional reform.” The problem is that the Secretariat of the Board incorporates these arguments against it in its proposal for admission to processing. Something that, as PP and PSOE recognize, does not usually happen: laws are normally given effect, without further ado.
What the PSOE says. The PSOE recalls that, in their report, the lawyers point out that the Senate Board must process the laws coming from Congress “immediately”, without the need to prepare a proposal to this nor to incorporate arguments for or against. “They want to shoehorn in the arguments of the Popular Party and the legal services,” criticized the socialist spokesperson, Juan Espadas, at a press conference. The senator relies on article 36 of the Senate Regulations, a precept that in his opinion goes along those lines. Under that premise, the socialists have decided not to “participate” in the vote because they consider it an institutional “fraud” and believe that it “exceeds” the capacity of the Senate. And, furthermore, because if they had voted in favor they would have assumed as their own the reasoning against the constitutionality of the norm.
What the PP says. The popular ones understand that the entire framework surrounding the processing of the amnesty law is so “convulsive” that “the constitutionality doubts” expressed by the Senate lawyers in the reports made public on Monday must be expressed in writing. “I don’t want it to be an admission for processing without further ado,” explains a PP source at the Board, who recalls that “there is no precept that expressly indicates this.” The popular ones then add that “a political and media justification” is necessary in front of the citizens and other political forces, such as Vox, that may accuse them of not going to the end in their offensive against the grace measure.
Calendar and Joint Commission. In any case, the majority of the PP in the Table has caused the law to be admitted for processing and the calendar begins to move. The maximum deadline for the popular party to torpedo the processing in the Senate is May 16, four days after the early elections in Catalonia. Afterwards, the rule will return to Congress. The final vote could take place even sooner, PP parliamentary sources advance. The Board has decided that the rule be processed by a Joint Commission made up of the Constitutional Commission and the Justice Commission.
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