Pardons to Catalan separatists divide Spain amid political storm

“I am Him. I am Him”, President Pedro Sánchez launched in Catalan, paraphrasing the poet Miquel Marti i Pol. We are what we are. Words which sounded with the wonderful acoustics of the Liceu de Barcelona and which were interpreted in their own way by each of the protagonists of this Spanish-Catalan drama. There, Sánchez confirmed that the nine prisoners of the “process” will be pardoned, the officials of the Catalan government responsible for the unilateral declaration of independence of 2017. A decision of which it is not known if it will lead to the democratic coexistence of the Catalans and the rest of the Spaniards but which, for the moment, it doesn’t leave anyone happy. It was expressed loud and clear by an infiltrator of the radicalized left within the theater itself: “Long live the earth !!!”. And at the door, where a few separatists gathered to say “Traitor! Sanchez in the face.

Forgiveness is not enough for the separatists. They say it barely gets them out of jail. They want amnesty, that is to say that they also erase their crimes. The current President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés, planted Sánchez in Liceu and de Tarragona again called for another referendum to determine Catalan independence. On the other side, from the center to the rancid right, everything is “a shame”. Inés Arrimadas, the president of the Liberals of Ciudadanos accused the government of “Bring Spain to its knees before the coup d’état”. PP (Popular Party, right) president Pablo Casado described what happened at Liceu as “A comic opera”. “He used a pardon to deliver a knockout blow to legality, granting it to those who haven’t asked for it, don’t regret it and, furthermore, threaten to repeat it,” Casado said. . Vox’s far right speaks directly about “Insult to the Spaniards”, “illegality” and calls for “a judicial revolt” to stop pardons. He has already announced that the trial and the release of the nine prisoners may take a little longer.

Sánchez justifies the measure with words like concord, democracy, legality and the Constitution. He insists that this is a step towards a new stage in Catalonia. “The fundamental reason for the graces that we are about to approve is their usefulness for coexistence. And I am convinced that getting out of prison these nine people, who represent thousands of Catalans, is a resounding message of the desire for harmony and coexistence of Spanish democracy“, He declared in his speech. Previously, he had gained the support of powerful businessmen and the Church of Catalonia. They also say they were pressuring him from the EU through the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Either way, it’s not going to win a lot of friends. But it is possible that he will obtain a grace period of around two years during which the Catalan independence movement could remain in parentheses. “If Pedro Sánchez and his government end up losing the elections within two years, it will be due more to the price of electricity than to grace measures»Antón Losada wrote in elDiario.es. “This majority wants to see a government that moves forward and ceases to love itself by announcing that it is going to do so or by having fun entangled in the nostalgia and dreams of this minority who he is only happy in the past”.

Nine of the twelve accused in the trial were sentenced to between 9 and 13 years in prison for offenses of sedition and embezzlement of public funds. The rest are fines and disqualification for disobedience. The most emblematic prisoner is Oriol Junqueras, former vice-president of the Generalitat and leader of the ERC, the Catalan republican left, who declared from prison that “it is a pride to be imprisoned for having deposited ballot boxes. . Forgiveness can be put where it fits”. This left very unstable “Sánchez, the magnanimous”, as we say to the president in the bars of Madrid. Forgive those who regret nothing. But they are the ones who can give you essential voices to pass laws in Congress.

The law of rules for the exercise of the grace of forgiveness applied by the Sánchez government was promulgated in 1870, although revised and updated several times. This is article 62 of the Spanish Constitution and gives the Head of State, in this case Felipe VI, the prerogative “to exercise the right of pardon in accordance with the law, which cannot authorize pardons. general ”. And he adds that pardons cannot tarnish “the prestige of the courts, nor the same morality and public order”. He also specifies that it is not an amnesty, which is one that forgives the crime. Forgiveness forgives the penalty and the defendant must bear the costs of the proceedings and assume his guilt..

Who is excluded from this whole process is the head of the trial, Carles Puigdemont, then president of the Generalitat, who escaped to Brussels on October 29, 2017. He was arrested a year later while traveling in Germany, but the Supreme Court of that country refused his extradition to Spain. He returned to Brussels and from there launched his candidacy for the European Parliament. He got the bench, but in March of this year his privileges were taken away. Since then, play with him “I’m going but I’m not going” and he even sends messages through the networks insinuating that he is clandestinely in Barcelona. It was he who spearheaded the separatist movement that created the worst crisis in the country since the establishment of democracy after Franco’s night. Around 90% of Catalan voters supported independence in the referendum on October 1, 2017, but participation was only 43% and a majority would have been necessary. Despite this, the Catalan parliament declared independence on October 27, before Madrid suspended the region’s autonomy. The Spanish government removed Catalan leaders, dissolved parliament and called early regional elections two months later. The separatist parties won a narrow majority. Puigdemont, as he had not submitted to Spanish justice – a European arrest warrant still hangs over him and last Friday he was handed over to the Belgian judicial authorities – you don’t have the right to be forgiven. He must first be condemned.

Spain succeeded, after much blood, sweat and tears, in pacifying the Basque Country. Catalonia is a totally different process, but it appears as a new challenge “à la basque” for this Spain made up of several Spains.

KEEP READING: