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Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
Photo: Emilio Morenatti / AP
For Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez it is a risky but also an important step: He wants to pardon nine leading Catalan independence advocates who are currently in prison.
Sánchez announced this during a visit to Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.
Accordingly, the Spanish cabinet will approve the pardons on Tuesday.
The nine prominent politicians were sentenced to between nine and 13 years in prison in 2019 for attempting to secede Catalonia from Spain.
The government in Madrid regarded the independence referendum as illegal, and it plunged Spain into a state crisis.
The population of Catalonia is divided into roughly two equal blocks of supporters and opponents of independence.
In the rest of Spain they want to hold on to unity and are against a split of Catalonia.
The background to Sanchez 'announcement could be that he is operating in a minority government and is dependent on the votes of the separatists for a majority in parliament.
The pardons are also risky for Sanchez, however, because the detainees are sticking to the breakup of Catalonia - and their pardons are obviously unpopular in the rest of Spain.
Sánchez wants the releases to pacify the dispute over Catalonia.
Pardons would refute a central element of the separatists.
They have been claiming for years that Madrid brutally suppress the Catalans, much like an authoritarian regime.
mrc / AFP
