A balm for Sánchez and Puigdemont

BarcelonaThe battle for amnesty is being fought on several fronts, and the opinion issued today by the EU Advocate General, endorsing the amnesty and only raising objections to the implementation timetable, is a balm for its two main proponents, Pedro Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont, but in different ways. Sánchez's battle is against the People's Party (PP) and the judiciary, while Puigdemont's is against those who still haven't forgiven him for the investiture of the Spanish Socialist president and are demanding that he bring down the Spanish legislature. The EU's endorsement of the amnesty weakens many of the PP's arguments against the law, but it won't prevent the Supreme Court's delaying tactics. And at a time of maximum parliamentary weakness, the news has been received almost euphorically by an executive branch that staked its entire term on the amnesty. Perhaps without realizing it, Dean Spielmann has just poured more fuel into Pedro Sánchez's tank, who insists on clinging to power for another two years in La Moncloa.

As for Puigdemont, his defense of the changes introduced to the amnesty law at Gonzalo Boye's suggestion is significant and should be interpreted as a broader justification of his entire negotiating strategy. The former Catalan president needs to present himself as a statesman, as someone who practices high-level politics with a greater degree of sophistication than his spokesperson in Congress exudes, and whose epicenter is the legal strategy designed by the Chilean lawyer. Given the very real danger that the European Court of Human Rights will uphold the Supreme Court's ruling in the Catalan independence trial, it was essential that he first endorse the amnesty law, which will ultimately become Junts' biggest victory in this legislature (although ERC also claims it as their own). In short, Sánchez and Puigdemont are both receiving a boost from Brussels at a time when their relationship is at its lowest point. For the PP, it's another missed opportunity to derail the legislature, despite the overreaction on social media from its representatives, who are trying to turn isolated objections into a blanket condemnation of the law.