The former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero assured this Monday that he is “in favor of the amnesty” on 1-O to solve the “political conflict” in Catalonia and in his opinion it is a measure that “is not unconstitutional.” He has stressed that the amnesty would help initiate a process to attempt the “reunion” of Catalonia with the State after a “very serious conflict” that has produced a “deep division.”
In an interview on Onda Cero, collected by Europa Press, he argued that self-determination “is not compatible” with the PSOE program, but that the amnesty is because it is “an institution available to all democracies comparable to the Spanish”, mentioning that there have been “dozens of amnesties” since the Second World War.
“There is no Western, democratic, European country that has renounced the amnesty. Some appear in the Constitution, others do not,” he added, declaring himself in favor because the situation is “exceptional” and would favor the general interest.
Asked why Pedro Sánchez said before the elections that the amnesty did not fit in the Constitution, Zapatero maintained that the current president was referring rather to the type of amnesty that the pro-independence parties had presented. “If you have to change your mind, you change your mind,” he later expressed, although he considered that the amnesty “must be adequately motivated.”