The Minister of Transport and Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, defends that the Government "has the legal obligation to process the pardons" of politicians imprisoned and sentenced for their involvement in the independence process in Catalonia and "the moral obligation of alleviate tensions that may damage coexistence ”.
Understand that pardons can be a “positive gesture” for reconciliation.
That position unleashed this Sunday criticism from the PP and Citizens, who consider it "a price", "a privilege" and "an embarrassing and regrettable favor" from the Executive to pay the support of the pro-independence partners to the budgets.
In the Government and the PSOE they are not for the task of facilitating any type of amnesty law that could now benefit the political prisoners sentenced by the Supreme Court for their participation in the independence process in Catalonia, but the voices in favor of consider their pardons, even after the harsh pronouncement against the Prosecutor's Office.
José Luis Ábalos, moreover, is not just another Cabinet minister, because he manages the important Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda portfolio, the PSOE Organization secretariat and because he has been from the beginning one of the fundamental supports of the president, Pedro Sánchez , in his political career.
In an interview published this Sunday in
La Vanguardia
, Ábalos is asked if those negative reports from the Supreme Prosecutor's Office against pardons could condition their granting by the Council of Ministers.
The
number three of the PSOE
answers that prerogative belongs to the executive branch in the rule of law.
And he adds: "The Government has a legal obligation to process pardons, and a moral obligation to alleviate tensions that may damage coexistence."
The minister advanced what his position will be when the controversial pardons come to the table of the Council of Ministers: “Within respect for the Constitution and the laws, what is necessary must be done to reengage Catalonia to the common project.
Any gesture that contributes to political normality, and to reconciliation and coexistence is positive ”.
Ábalos' clear political messages to deflate the political conflict in Catalonia are repeated in the same vein: "You have to sew the wounds", "break the locks", "build bridges" and "weld the social and political fracture" with that community.
Theses very similar to those that Cabinet members such as Vice President Pablo Iglesias or Minister Alberto Garzón have been holding for weeks, and leaders of Unidos Podemos such as Pablo Echenique, Jaume Asens or Gerardo Pisarello.
Ábalos does not comment on when these pardons should be resolved, which the Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, acknowledged in Congress that he had begun to process at the end of September.
It only indicates that the calendar is determined by the mandatory reports of the judicial bodies.
Ábalos is also not opposed to the convicted leaders being able to participate in the election campaign for February 14 and uses a quote from Ernest Lluch: "The law, used with political intent, can and must give more of itself."
The relevance of these demonstrations unleashed the reactions of the opposition and especially the PP and Ciudadanos.
The parliamentary spokesperson for the PP, Cuca Gamarra, interpreted that the PSOE lost "morals and ethics on the day it made a pact with Bildu and independentistas, it is the price for their votes.
And he rhetorically asked himself: "And the moral obligation not to leave the non-independence Catalans alone?"
Gamarra, as other leaders of the PP did this Sunday, took the opportunity to question Ábalos' management capacity in this crisis of the pandemic and now of the truckers held in the United Kingdom.
The popular spokesperson urged Ábalos to "stop
giving affection
to his partners in the direction of the State, as Secretary of Organization of what was the PSOE" and act as minister to "relieve the truckers who still do not get home or stop the drain of the virus that is Barajas ”.
Very similar ideas repeated the former popular minister Ana Pastor.
And stop "giving affection" to your partners in the direction of the State, as Secretary of Organization of what was the PSOE, and begin, as Minister of Transportation, to relieve the truckers who still do not get home or to stop the drain of the virus that is Barajas, its powers.
- Cuca Gamarra (@cucagamarra) December 27, 2020
The leader of Cs, Inés Arrimadas, replied on Twitter to Ábalos: “The obligation of the Government of Spain is to guarantee the rights and freedoms of 7.5 million Catalans, not to pardon the condemned politicians.
In order to recover coexistence in Catalonia, it is not necessary to give privileges to those who have broken it, but to govern for all ”.
The obligation of the Government of Spain is to guarantee the rights and freedoms of 7.5M Catalans, not to pardon convicted politicians.
In order to recover coexistence in Catalonia, it is not necessary to give privileges to those who have broken it, but to govern for all. Https://t.co/13ed0enK0C
- Inés Arrimadas (@InesArrimadas) December 27, 2020