The independence movement seeks to rehabilitate an entire political generation with the amnesty

The independence process has disrupted, in the last decade, all spheres of public life in Catalonia. And it has altered, especially, the political class. The judicial offensive in which the PP government trusted to respond to the territorial challenge practically took away an entire generation of cadres from Esquerra, the CUP and the successive formations that have occupied the space left by Convergència. The approval of an amnesty law – a condition of Junts and the Republicans to invest Pedro Sánchez – would serve first of all, as the independentistas have verbalized, to rehabilitate more than 60 elected and high-ranking officials prosecuted or convicted in cases vilified by the processes. These secessionist leaders and middle cadres have seen their political trajectories cut short, sometimes prematurely, with prison sentences, disqualifications or fines.

The independence movement considers that only an amnesty law would allow the counter to be reset to zero, since it supposes a clean slate in the history of each affected person (and not a mere government pardon). It would be the starting point, they insist, to begin a negotiation with the Government on equal terms and with mutual recognition. But the effects of a measure of this magnitude go much further and affect the most personal sphere of the defendants. The rehabilitation of the leaders —some have already been sentenced, others remain awaiting trial— does not imply that they will necessarily return to the political front line. But there are aspects of an amnesty, such as the suppression of criminal records or the end of disqualifications, which have beneficial effects, for example, on their professional performance.

The process devastated the party system and political alliances in Catalonia: it caused a schism in socialism, ended the historic federation of Convergència i Unió, gave impetus to Ciudadanos and, finally, caused the emergence of Junts around the figure of the former president Carles Puigdemont. The open criminal and administrative processes (through the Court of Accounts) reach different levels of the Administration: from three presidents of the Generalitat (Artur Mas, Puigdemont himself and Quim Torra) to political and technical positions, including party militants. who were waiting from a discreet second row for a greater role.

The penalties of disqualification from holding public office that have entailed many of these criminal proceedings – for the crimes of embezzlement or disobedience – have had as a consequence the loss of atomic weight within the pro-independence formations, which have also had to mature prematurely some leaderships. Quim Torra was forced to leave the presidency after being convicted for refusing to remove yellow ribbons (a symbol of support for politicians imprisoned by 1-O) from the façade of the Palau de la Generalitat. Something similar happened to CUP deputy Pau Juvillà, also disqualified by court order.

The parties have seen how the sentences have left their first swords out of play, none with as much social and political repercussion as that of the leaders of the process. In addition to high prison terms, the Supreme Court disabled practically the entire Executive branch that had organized and led the referendum on October 1, 2017, declared illegal by the Constitutional Court. Politicians like Josep Rull (55 years old), Santi Vila (50 years old) or Raül Romeva (52 years old) have seen, for the moment, truncated careers that seemed to have a long political journey. The government’s partial pardon allowed them to be released from prison, but it did not remove these disqualifications, something that would happen with an amnesty.

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After 1-O and the failed unilateral declaration of independence in 2017, Puigdemont fled to Belgium, from where he is now trying to monopolize the investiture negotiations. The former president has already warned that amnesty is a necessary condition if Sánchez wants to govern again and he makes it a condition even prior to that vote. He is one of the most obvious beneficiaries of a possible amnesty law, and his return to Spain would be one of the most notable milestones in this process. Both the MEP and Junts and Esquerra insist that they are not looking for a personal solution, but that the mechanism is designed for the entire group of people “retaliated” for their role in the process.

The material organization of 1-O was in the hands of officials and senior officials of that Government of Puigdemont and former Vice President Oriol Junqueras, who remain indicted and awaiting trial for embezzlement and disobedience, since the Government, with the vote of ERC , repealed the crime of sedition. A court keeps the case open, which affects more than twenty Junts and Esquerra charges. The reform of the crime of embezzlement by the Government was carried out, among other things, at the request of the Republicans to alleviate the situation of those defendants. But it has been seen that it was not the solution. The Prosecutor’s Office interprets that they committed aggravated embezzlement and requests high prison sentences. To cite an example, he requests seven and six years in prison for two of the brains of the referendum: Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó, both of Junqueras’s highest confidence.

Although it has not yet formulated its amnesty proposal, the independence movement already showed its cards two years ago, when it presented a bill in Congress that was not even processed. This text states that “all acts of political intention” will be amnestied. And the investigation in the National Court on Tsunami Democràtic —the movement that led the protests against the procés sentence— is explicitly contemplated, as well as the people who participated in the mobilizations and who were arrested for public disorder. One of the current debates is whether acts of violence (also, for example, those committed by police officers accused of beating protesters on 1-O) should be forgiven.

The temporal contour of the amnesty is equally relevant. According to the rejected proposal, it must include all acts punished since 2013. This means that it would also benefit politicians condemned by the organization of the independence referendum on November 9, 2014. Former President Artur Mas and three advisers from his government were sentenced to penalties of disqualification for a day that had been suspended by the Constitutional Court. In parallel (as also happened in 1-O), the Court of Accounts opened processes that have forced the independence movement to make a titanic effort to avoid economic ruin for party officials.

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