The mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Jose Manuel Bermudez (Canary Coalition), has ordered the legal services of the City Council to explore “judicial means” to overthrow the Amnesty Law. Bermúdez has called an urgent press conference this Wednesday to ask the rest of the mayors of the Canary Islands and the Peninsula to join ”his individual complaint” and thus transform it into a ”collective” one. ”I have signed an instruction so that, immediately, the legal services of this City Council explore any judicial avenue available to us to fight against this law. We will try to prevent it from being processed because it is illegal or from being applied because it is illegal,’ he said.
The PSOE registered this Monday in the Congress of Deputies the ”Organic Amnesty Law for institutional, political and social normalization in Catalonia”. This rule will mean the annulment of the judicial proceedings against the Catalan leaders and the penalties derived from the process: the consultation of November 9, 2014, the referendum of October 1, 2017 and the unilateral declaration of independence.
Bermúdez has not clarified whether his decision has had the support of his party leaders. The mayor of the Tenerife capital has insisted that he pronounces himself as “mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and not as a member of any party.” ”I don’t have to account to anyone for my actions as mayor, except the citizens of my city,” he stressed.
This Thursday, Canarian Coalition will say ‘yes’ to the investiture of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) as President of the Government of Spain after an agreement signed on November 10. However, CC has made clear its rejection of the Amnesty Law.
This same Wednesday, the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has assured that his political formation will be “hard” against the amnesty for being “immoral” and not obeying the “general interest” of Spain. Even so, Clavijo has justified his support for Sánchez’s investiture because a ”agenda” that is ”in the interest” of the Archipelago.
”I said what I had to say in my party’s organs. From there, I abide by any decision that the party may make,” Bermúdez has assured in this sense. ”That doesn’t affect me as mayor. “I am here defending the interests of my city and the oath I took,” he noted.
”I am not the only mayor who speaks out against the Amnesty Law, nor the first city council to approve a motion in this regard. Yes, I am the first to go further, in the search for all legal instruments to fight against this attack against the Rule of Law,’ he concluded.
