eva vazquez
"I am a radical enemy of pardon, of all pardons." This emphatic statement does not belong to any pseudo-fascist of the new school but to Don Luis Jiménez de Asúa, a deputy to the Cortes for the PSOE in the Constituents of the Second Republic and president of the commission that drafted the new Constitution. He was also vice president of Parliament after the victory of the Popular Front in 1936; representative of Spain before the League of Nations and president of the Spanish Republic in exile for eight years, until his death in 1970. Furthermore, he was, and continues to be, thanks to his immense legacy, an undisputed master of criminal law. In other words, we can agree that demonstrating against the granting of pardons, of any kind, belongs to the most important part of the tradition of the left.
The discussion around the exercise of grace towards the pro-independence factions sentenced to jail for their crimes against the Constitution has been the protagonist of the public debate for weeks.
If we add to this the investigations into the Villarejo police mafia at the service of Ibex companies, and the corruption of political parties, we will conclude that a careful reading of the Penal Code should be a priority subject in education for citizenship.
On the subject at hand, I also recommend consulting Eva Carracedo's excellent doctoral thesis for the UAM entitled
Pena e pardon
.
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The split nation
The right of grace is a medieval relic, a legal antique, which the modern rulers of the Earth appropriated against the general opinion of criminal experts. Many believe that the reduction of sentences by decision of the Executive contaminates the democratic principle of the separation of powers to the detriment of judicial independence. There are also regulations that allow, through the granting of provisional liberties and permits, to alleviate the conditions of compliance of the inmates even if they do not show repentance, as is the case of the former councilors of the Generalitat. That is why they were able to attend, in a relevant place, the inauguration of the new Catalan president, after having participated, from inside and outside the prison, in the flushes between the various factions of sovereignty.
It has been remembered ad nauseam that the current pardons law is no less than 151 years ago, but hardly any emphasis is placed on the altered circumstances in which it was approved, and only provisionally, which paradoxically has allowed it to survive a century and a half. They were times of the Regency after the Glorious Revolution and the exile of Isabel II. Later the Spanish crowned a foreign monarch whose reign lasted barely two years; they declared an even less enduring First Republic; then followed the revolution of the cantons, the fight for the independence of Cuba, the third Carlist war and the return of the Bourbons in the person of Alfonso XII.Thus, in the initial introduction of the aforementioned law, the deputies were very determined to guarantee favorable treatment for those convicted of crimes of sedition and rebellion given "the character and conditions of the society of our time and even high government considerations. ”. These referred to the fact that a good number of the civilian leaders and military commanders who ruled the country in such troubled times had to go into exile repeatedly and on other occasions they suffered jail or imprisoned their opponents themselves, depending on the times. The ruling class thereby protected itself from its excesses. Sedition and pardons were the two sides of the same coin: that of political robbery. The same as today.These referred to the fact that a good number of the civilian leaders and military commanders who ruled the country in such troubled times had to go into exile repeatedly and on other occasions they suffered jail or imprisoned their opponents themselves, depending on the times. The ruling class thereby protected itself from its excesses. Sedition and pardons were the two sides of the same coin: that of political robbery. The same as today.These referred to the fact that a good number of the civilian leaders and military commanders who ruled the country in such troubled times had to go into exile repeatedly and on other occasions they suffered jail or imprisoned their opponents themselves, depending on the times. The ruling class thereby protected itself from its excesses. Sedition and pardons were the two sides of the same coin: that of political robbery. The same as today.that of political robbery. The same as today.that of political robbery. The same as today.
Go ahead my conviction that the return to a certain civil normality in the Catalan autonomous community, what the story released from La Moncloa calls the reunion, will not be possible while the only persons responsible for the alteration of concord, who are the seditious. But there are ways to resolve the case that do not involve confrontation with the judging court or contempt for the millions of Spaniards, including millions of Catalans as well, whose coexistence has been seriously altered by the separatist attempt. Apart from the responsibilities incurred by Rodríguez Zapatero, whose ineptitude gave fuel to this process, and the astonishment of President Rajoy at the time of aborting it, on which History will take its toll on them,It is worth looking at the characteristics of the pardons announced by Pedro Sánchez, which he has said he will resolve in conscience. It is not the President who exercises the right of grace, in accordance with current laws and the Constitution, but the King, following an agreement by the Council of Ministers and at the initiative of the Minister of Justice. In circumstances like this, many other consciences are at stake than that of the president, and it should not be presumed that those of the ministers (and ministers) have more ethical quality.In circumstances like this, many other consciences are at stake than that of the president, and it should not be presumed that those of the ministers (and ministers) have more ethical quality.In circumstances like this, many other consciences are at stake than that of the president, and it should not be presumed that those of the ministers (and ministers) have more ethical quality.
ministers
) than those of the members of the sentencing court. Sánchez intends to turn a legal instrument designed to alleviate, in an individualized manner, the personal suffering of those convicted who repent of the crime, into a political weapon aimed at guaranteeing their permanence in power. His pretext is to favor what he calls the reunion in Catalonia. Laudable resolution provided that you tell us what your project is and that of your party. We still do not know anything about that, but in no case can it go down the path of a referendum of self-determination or the recognition of the so-called right to decide, which belongs exclusively to all Spaniards. From that point of view, Mr. Junqueras is right when he tells the members of the Government to put the pardon wherever it fits, that is, up their ass,According to the distinguished lexicologist and academic Manuel Seco in his
Phraseological
Dictionary
of
Actual
Spanish
.
Junqueras knows that the pardon does not cancel the crime, nor the criminal record, nor his status as a criminal, and that is why he requests amnesty, which would be a political measure but only applicable through a law approved in the Cortes. Such a law is morally justified in political transition processes, which is not the case. If it were approved, such unknowns for the future would be opened that would lead us to the end of democracy.
Every day the impression is more widespread that the problem of the ruling team is not so much that it has an inordinate appetite for power, as its enemies argue, but its incompetence, of which the treatment of the pandemic or the crisis with Morocco also attests. .
An incompetence not simply functional, but the result of a lack of good judgment, which is not exclusive to the party in power.
In any case, it is advisable not to get too agitated.
With or without pardons, the Catalan issue, like the Moroccan issue, like so many others, are not problems to be solved but realities with which to live.
Galdós explained it well in his book on Cánovas, the last of the
National
Episodes
. In an imaginary conversation with the author of the Restoration, he puts in his mouth a description of the politics of the time, which could well have been spoken this week. “This old nation, with its glories and sorrows, its strengths and memories, its aristocratic and popular institutions, and an extraordinary sentimental power, constitutes a political body of such tough consistency that statesmen, whatever their gifts of will and understanding cannot alter it ”. To end his fatalistic opinion with the conviction that only Time, with capital letters, could lead the country to a new stage of civilization. A century and a half have passed since then, the provisional pardon law continues in force, and today time and statesmen are scarce.