News Summaries in May 2024
“Spain Approves Amnesty In Separatists’ 2017 Vote,” New York Times, May 31, 2024 The Spanish Parliament approved a law May 30 granting amnesty to hundreds of Catalan separatists who participated in an illegal October 2017 referendum on whether Catalonia should become independent from Spain. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had brokered the amnesty deal with Catalan separatists as a way to get enough votes in Parliament to stay in power after elections in July 2023. Opposition parties reacted with fury to the deal as a threat to the integrity of Spain. “Spain’s judges now have two months to apply the new law, although its opponents vowed to continue trying to block it,” wrote Times reporter Rachel Chaundler. People’s Party leader Núñez Feijóo faulted the measure as an “exchange of power” for “privileges and impunity.” He added: “Don’t dare call it coexistence.” Santiago Abascal of the far-right Vox party said the law “legitimizes political violence.” Chaundler observed that “despite t...