After weeks, months, of biting his tongue, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, spoke this Monday about the agreement signed by the PSOE with Junts and ERC to invest Pedro Sánchez as president of the Government. “I am aware of the political agreements reached with two pro-independence parties and certainly those agreements cause me some concern or quite a few concerns,” he stated, without wanting to go into evaluating the matter in greater depth. “It is logical because it is a difficult problem on which at the time, not now, I will express myself,” he added.
It is not a comfortable phase for the veteran socialist leader, who headed the PSOE lists in the last European elections and who for years, as a minister or not, fought with the independence movement, led constitutional demonstrations in Barcelona or published books to demonstrate, with accounts, “the stories” of the sovereigntist story. Borrell does not support much of the content of these agreements, and especially the revision of the entire narrative of the Procés, which he suffered firsthand. But he does not want to blow up the investiture negotiations.
“It is evident that I cannot mix my role with personal considerations regarding a problem of Spanish domestic politics,” the head of European diplomacy justified for not going into the matter in-depth. But he wanted to add: “Everyone who knows me in Spain and knows my personal and previous political career can imagine what I think. And without yet knowing the Amnesty Law because I know it (I know it has been published today but I have been locked up in the Council and these days I have been terribly busy with the problems inherent to my function) but without knowing the Law in detail I cannot speak out,” he assured in Brussels.
Borrell is against paying any price for the investiture, but he remains what he is within the party, and that is why he has remained silent and prefers to respond cryptically. Crystalline, very clear, but cryptic. “It does not mean that I do not have my opinion and that at some point I will express it, because I have the full right to do so without involving the European institutions in any way. Certainly here and now is not the time,” Borrell elaborated.
The moment is delicate and although it is true that it was the press conference of a European meeting where topics as relevant as Gaza or Ukraine were discussed, it was not the appropriate place, the truth is that he could have already intervened in any forum. or format.
The pressure for the European authorities to rule on the amnesty is very strong. This Monday the European People’s Party has requested a debate in the plenary session of the European Parliament on the issue and the PP and Ciudadanos have sent a dossier to the President of the Council, Charles Michel, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the vice-presidents and commissioners Josep Borrell (High Representative for Foreign Policy), Vera Jourová (Values and Transparency) and Margrethe Vestager (Competition), Margaritis Schinas (Promotion of the European way of life), and the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, in which They compile all the complaints and positions taken Thursday, prosecutors and civil organizations against the amnesty and the Government agreement.
Also, to the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the leadership of the parliamentary groups of the EPP and Renew Europe, to which both parties belong, and to the representations before the EU of the other 26 member states. Precisely, the liberal Alde party has released a statement expressing its “deep concern about the recent agreement signed by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), relating to the provisions of the amnesty law and the parliamentary investigation of independent judicial decisions. The agreement risks violating the rule of law and could undermine the autonomy of the judiciary. Prioritizing political victories over maintaining legal institutions could set a dangerous trend, allowing politics to influence legal matters, eroding the essential balance of powers necessary for a functioning democracy. Sacrificing the rule of law and the division of power in exchange for votes to secure a government is unacceptable and requires action from the European institutions,” say Ciudadanos partners.
Everyone wants the Brussels authorities to speak out. The Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, did it in his own way, sending a letter to the acting ministers Pilar Llop and Félix Bolaños just on the eve of the agreement with Junts, asking for more information and ensuring that there was a lot of “concern among citizens.” “.
On the other hand, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, the socialist and former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, did so, who last weekend, at the meeting in Malaga of the European socialists, supported the negotiations by expressing his support “for the process democratic that is underway in Spain” and highlighting that what Pedro Sánchez is doing to build a new government coalition “is perfectly coherent” with his European democratic model, according to Efe.