Spain's left-wing Sumar to present report on amnesty in Barcelona next Tuesday

Spain's acting deputy prime minister and leader of the left-wing coalition Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, has announced that the party she leads will present a judicial report on an amnesty for organizers of the October 2017 independence referendum in Barcelona next Tuesday. 

Díaz has announced that the party, which shared a coalition government with the Socialists in Spain during the last mandate, is in favor of pardons for those judicial cases linked to the October 1 vote, she said on Friday morning during an interview with Spain's public broadcaster RTVE. 

The report will set the grounds for the party to start negotiating with the Catalan pro-independence parties and the Spanish Socialists to potentially back a Socialist prime ministerial bid led by acting PM Pedro Sánchez. Sánchez will not take a position on amnesty after finishing all post-election talks.

During the interview, Díaz did not give any more information but said that the post-election talks and the potential amnesty are part of the "ongoing works" for the PM bid.

Hours later, Spanish Socialist PM candidate Pedro Sánchez announced that the amnesty "is another way of leaving behind the judicial consequences seen in Spain during one of the worst territorial crises lived," he said during a press conference accompanied by EU Council president Charles Michel and EU Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen in Spain's southern city of Granada.

All pro-independence actions since 2013

The judicial report that Sumar will present on an amnesty will include "all" activities made to try to achieve Catalan independence since 2013, as Spanish newspaper El Periódico reported after seeing the document.

The amnesty will, therefore, include all charges related to the November 9, 2014 non-binding referendum and the October 1, 2017 vote. However, it does not include pro-independence Junts president Laura Borràs, who was sentenced for her role during her time as head of the Catalan Institute of Letters.

The measure will also see the amnesty applied to all those police officers who tried to stop the vote on October 1.

Amnesty is a done deal 

Catalan president Pere Aragonès considered that "the amnesty is a done deal, and we just need to continue working to find solutions for the society to get to decide on their future," he said during a press conference in the Catalan government headquarters accompanied by Germany's Baden-Württemberg minister-president, Winfried Kretschmann.

These negotiations to back a potential PM bid depend on the different votes and "not on what is chanted on the streets," he added.

Referring to the attendance of Díaz Ayuso, Feijóo, and Abascal, Aragonès believes that "once they leave on Sunday and they return, what we only ask of them is for the hate, critique, and sourly speech return to their home. We will continue working together for Catalonia," he concluded.

Junts receives report

Catalan pro-independence Junts has announced they have received the judicial report on a potential amnesty coming from Sumar and the Catalan anti-austerity, En Comú Podem. However, they rejected talking about it but thanked the two parties for sharing such a document.

MEP Toni Comín received the file from Jaume Asens from the anti-austerity party. Junts have already announced their goal to reach an agreement, and they said they "will analyze the document and share their thoughts with En Comú Podem as soon as possible," a shared statement reads.

Demonstration against amnesty 

Barcelona will see a demonstration on Sunday against the amnesty and self-determination, with the attendance of many, such as People's Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo and far-right Vox Santiago Abascal. Madrid's regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will also be in the Catalan capital for the protest organized by the pro-Spanish unity Societat Civil Catalana civil society group. 

"Whoever wants to demonstrate, as long as it is not violently, can do that, without a doubt," Yolanda Díaz said when asked about the people attending. "But no one will ever see me positioning myself on a side. If I were called on to protest as a ministry, I would not even want to imagine what would happen. There are presidents who call on take part, and nothing happens," she added.