Spain’s parliament approved a controversial amnesty for Catalan separatists on Thursday after months of political wrangling in Madrid.
The “Law for Institutional, Political and Social Normalization in Catalonia” was approved by 177 votes to 172 in the Congress of Deputies, Spain’s lower chamber. It will enter into force within a few days of publication in the Government Gazette.
The bill has sparked heated debates and several votes in both houses of parliament since November, when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reached an agreement with two separatist Catalan parties to support his re-election in exchange for amnesty.
The law will apply to around 400 activists and politicians who faced legal consequences for their involvement in Catalonia’s pro-independence movement, which culminated in an illegal independence referendum in late 2017.
Among the beneficiaries is Carles Puigdemont, the former regional president, who has been living in exile in Belgium since Madrid cracked down on the separatist movement after the referendum.
Several separatists who remained in Spain were sentenced to prison terms of up to thirteen years, although they have since been pardoned. Only a small number of crimes, including terrorism, are excluded from the amnesty.
The bill has caused unrest in Spain for months. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s Party, called it a “national disgrace” and an “international disgrace” and accused Sánchez of buying his re-election with amnesty.
Sánchez has defended the policy as helping to ease tensions in Catalonia, amid signs that the separatist movement is weakening.
In parliamentary elections in the northeastern autonomous community on May 12, pro-independence parties lost their absolute majority for the first time since 1980. Sánchez’s Socialist Party won the most votes and seats in Barcelona’s parliament.
