2023-11-25 20:32:04
BarcelonaToni Comín (Barcelona, 1971) is a JxCat MEP and one of the people who can benefit from the amnesty law after six years in exile.
When can we do this interview in Barcelona?
— I can’t say exactly, but maybe next spring.
Is your intention to return even if the judicial appeals have not been resolved?
— The law provides that the precautionary measures of the proceedings that are suspended are also suspended. In the event that the judge presents a question of unconstitutionality, as could happen in our case, we could return without risk of being arrested, because the national arrest warrant would have to be suspended. As soon as we have the opportunity to return to freedom, we will.
Are you content to return with an amnesty?
– Yes a lot. We said that we would only return in freedom and without having to make any political concessions in return. There are two ways. One, through the judgments of the Court of Luxembourg that forced the Supreme Court to annul the national arrest warrant and to respect our immunity as MEPs. The other is with an amnesty law. We said we wanted to return free without paying a political price.
Hasn’t unilateralism been renounced?
– Not at all. The PSOE has already saved enough not to demand this renunciation of unilateralism. The actor who is negotiating, while doing so, is not acting unilaterally, but it is not in our hands, as Together, to give up unilaterality or not. Because, among other things, it consists of the exercise of civil and political rights that were used to try to materialize the mandate of 1-O. And this is a right of the people of Catalonia, it is not the heritage of a party.
Therefore, they will not appeal to unilateralism as long as there is a negotiating table.
— We have always said that only an agreed referendum can replace 1-O. An agreed referendum is now being given the chance to explore. If it does not arrive, the 1-O mandate will remain in force. The citizens of Catalonia will have every right in the world to exercise their civil rights to try to materialize the mandate.
Have they already met with the PSOE in the new negotiation table that they said was supposed to be in November?
— When the meetings must be public, the parties will meet in a formal and official manner.
The Spanish president has explained that the first meeting will take place in Switzerland.
— If he said it, I take it for granted.
Does the HD Center for Humanitarian Dialogue sit at this table?
— It has always remained with the verification mechanism that details of its participation would not be given.
We will not know who will be the mediator?
— The intention is for it to have a public part that, when the time comes, we will explain. If there is something to communicate, someone will have to communicate it.
Are Marta Rovira and Carles Puigdemont included in the amnesty?
— There is no doubt about it, the amnesty protects them. Only acts of terrorism that correspond to the articles of the European directive and with a final sentence are excluded. There will be no final sentence for terrorism against anyone.
A delicate subject is that of lawfare. How will it be channeled?
— The European Parliament has had the commission on Pegasus and the Congress has already registered that of Operation Catalunya. We’ll see what we make of his conclusions.
The European Commissioner for Justice says that they will be very vigilant with the amnesty law. Does it worry you?
— The European Commissioner has been a dangerous friend of Citizens. Having said that, he said the other day what is said in relation to any law of the Union, that the Commission will analyze it.
The document ‘Preparem-nos’, from the Council of the Republic, talks about the alternative way to negotiation in a context in which we understood that the possibility of negotiation was nil”
He is vice-president of the Council for the Republic. How compatible is their strategy of confrontation, which they defend in the document Prepare uswith the new negotiation table?
— The document Prepare us it talks about the alternative way to negotiation in a context in which we understood that the possibility of negotiation was nil. We have never considered them exclusive, they are compatible and even complementary. Depending on each context, civil society, the correlation of forces, one will have to be explored more than the other.
Is it normal that the two sovereignist parties do not coordinate?
— It’s normal coming from where we come from. Of a legislature in which ERC wanted to negotiate exclusively with the PSOE and made it a condition that it had no stable dialogue with Junts. I am now worried that ERC and President Aragonès want to consolidate the negotiation process when they realize that Junts is decisive in the negotiation. I would like a proposal to coordinate negotiating strategies to be based on the benefit of the country and not on partisan interest.
What should be the offer to unify the tables?
— When everyone sets different conditions, it makes no sense to unify the negotiations.
The beneficiaries of the amnesty are many people and no resignations have been made. This cannot be said of the ERC negotiation with the PSOE”
What is the difference between what Esquerra has done in recent years and what Junts is doing now?
— An amnesty has been obtained. The beneficiaries of this amnesty are many people and no resignation has been made, and this cannot be said of the ERC’s negotiation with the PSOE. The fruits of that negotiation were pardons, very respectable, and a certain price was paid, such as an explicit renunciation of unilateralism. In the methodology, an international mediator offers more guarantees to the agreement.
Could the amnesty have been reached without the pardons?
– Absolutely. The amnesty was reached because the PSOE needed Junts’ votes. And this could have been done before, when the necessary votes were those of another party. They didn’t put that price and there was no amnesty. The theory that to get there first you need to go through pardons has no logical consistency.
Will they abandon governance once they have the amnesty approved?
— If the PSOE is able to reach agreements with us and fulfill them, governability will be guaranteed. If not, no.
The theory that in order to get amnesty you had to go through the pardons before has no logical consistency”
Can progress come earlier in the financing system than in the referendum?
— The two tables should be able to advance in parallel.
One of the negotiators said that it would be more difficult to get out of the general functioning of regional financing than the amnesty. Do you agree?
— I couldn’t tell. But the PSOE must be well prepared to have many upsets in many votes in Congress if it does not reach agreements with us. There is no obligation to approve anything, no budgets, no decrees or laws, if no progress is made in these months. I predict a difficult legislature, with many tough negotiations.
If the referendum was valid, why was it not implemented?
— It is one thing that it was valid and the other is that it was implementable. The correlation of forces in October 2017 was not enough to implement the referendum. But that does not take away its legitimacy. If the political forces that approved the referendum law want to be consistent, then we cannot fail to consider a referendum held in accordance with that law as binding and valid.
Will you participate directly in the negotiation table?
— In principle no.
Who will participate?
— I don’t have to explain that.
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