Spain's Amnesty Pact Meets Indifference Amid Past Tolerances

Indifference to Amnesty: Grievances Spain Already Tolerated

The agreement between PSOE and Junts to invest Pedro Sánchez, using amnesty for those involved in the *procés* as bargaining chip, has led to demonstrations outside Socialist party headquarters. Yet, an analytical current receives the scandal with a yawn. It is not laziness: it is memory.

The circulating thesis is uncomfortable. The astonishment of 2023 does not hold if one reviews the list of decisions the country has digested with barely any noise since the 1980s. The question is not why be indignant, but why now and not before. Treachery after treachery, the amnesty would be just another piece.

LIVG: The Law That Entered With Barely Any Noise

The Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence was approved in 2004, and its successive extensions passed without mobilizations. For much of the criticism, it introduced differentiated legal treatment based on the aggressor's gender—different evidentiary standards and penalties that in certain cases reach 15 years in prison—and there were no protests then.

The sharpest point is institutional. Some argued that the Supreme Court viewed the LIVG as contrary to the Constitution, and it was the Constitutional Court that endorsed it. Absolute silence. And silence, it is argued, is also a form of consent.

The 2020 Lockdown and the Resistance That Did Not Exist

When states of alarm were decreed, the social response was applause from balconies, not protest. Doubts about their constitutional fit came late and already deactivated.

The comparison is launched bluntly: if home confinement in 2020 was tolerated—and partly celebrated—the outburst over the pact with separatists is hard to understand. The intensity of the reaction depends not on the size of the grievance, but on its pulling power.

Afghanistan: 200,000 Dead and No Flags in the Street

The invasion of Afghanistan left around two hundred thousand dead, according to figures used. The Taliban offered to cooperate in handing over Bin Laden; the operation continued anyway. There were no mass demonstrations against that.

The reasoning closes the circle: if a State kills foreigners for nothing and for nothing, it should not surprise that it later tramples the rights of its own citizens.

The CGPJ That Criticizes Amnesty But Was Silent on LIVG

The General Council of the Judiciary expressed its rejection of the pact. But, according to this reading, it did not lift a finger when the LIVG entered the scene. Hence the uncomfortable question: what authority does it have to object now?

To this is added the reproach to the People's Party. It calls people to the streets but, according to this current, does not activate levers it has at hand, such as permanent reviewable imprisonment for terrorism crimes. Much balcony talk and few heavy reforms. The reproach comes from afar: already in the 90s, people were encouraged to demonstrate against terrorism without touching the Penal Code.

From Anti-Corruption Champion to Amnesty Signatory

The shift most emphasized is that of Podemos. In 2014 it presented itself as an anti-corruption champion, displaying ethical codes as medals. In 2023, it signs the amnesty for those involved in the *procés*. The contrast, for this current, summarizes how principles dilute when there is something to distribute on the board.

Governing With Those Who Set the Conditions

The new balance of power leaves an uncomfortable scene: the Government needs the votes of separatists, and whoever holds them sets the price. The amnesty is the bill. For this current, the spectacle is not the pact itself, but seeing those who promised not to pay it swallow every demand.

Is the Amnesty Democratic?

In parliamentary arithmetic, it passes: the majority of the Chamber supports it. This is the point used to dismantle the flag of defending democracy under which rallies are convened.

The counter-replica is finer. Parliament would not translate a social majority, but a sum of party apparatuses. Voting is not equivalent to ratifying, and a majority agreed upon by elites is not the same as a majority of citizens. There the argument stalls, and each side keeps the half that suits them.

European Flags at a Protest Against the Pact

A detail particularly irritates this current: demonstrating against the agreement while carrying European Union flags. One protests against some with the symbols of those who have blessed everything previous without fuss.

And here the count stops. If the country already tolerated the LIVG, the lockdown, the Afghan adventure, and the vaccine passport, the amnesty is just another link in a long chain. The protest arrived, yes, but late and without fully knowing what is being asked. No one has closed the balance of why 2023 yes and 2004 no.