Coldness of the independence movement in the face of Sánchez's enthusiasm for penal reform

In the foreground, the 'president' Pere Aragonès and the counselor Laura Vilagrá, before the weekly meeting of the Government, this Tuesday in Barcelona. Enric Fontcuberta (EFE)

When, in June 2021, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced that he would grant pardons to the leaders of the

sentenced to prison

the independence movement disdained the measure, denying it any hint of political courage despite the fact that Sánchez presented it as a way to defuse the situation in Catalonia.

Even ERC attributed it simply to a hypothetical pressure from European organizations.

Now, with the reform of the Penal Code —the result of a negotiation between the PSOE and ERC— practically ready, and promoted with the same or even more enthusiasm by the President of the Government, secessionism does not budge one iota from that approach and lives the cold announcement.

Different voices from pro-independence parties and entities insist, until everything is consummated, it will not be possible to really assess the impact.

And this despite the fact that the immediate beneficiaries of the reform are those convicted of the

and those who are pending trial for that cause.

In the ERC leadership they limit themselves to repeating the mantra coined in the past by the deputy Gabriel Rufián: "The PSOE does not do it, the PSOE is forced to do it."

For them, the reform that repeals the crime of sedition and lowers the penalties for embezzlement (which benefits at least 37 ex-independence officers already tried or prosecuted) is another example of that maxim, the mere fruit of a more acquired commitment in the negotiated way .

Everything was scheduled to take place before the end of this year at the dialogue table, those voices insist, and this was achieved after an immense crisis of confidence derived from the Pegasus espionage case.

the

Pere Aragonès was one of those monitored, although with judicial authorization, and for the Republicans that was incompatible with the desire for dialogue on which the Government insisted.

When trust was restored in August, at ERC they wanted to take advantage of it to speed up the negotiations so that the table could close the year with tangible results.

It was not yet clear that the government coalition with Junts was going to fall, but the idea already existed that there had to be an announcement that would serve to show that the commitment to dialogue was useful.

No one foresaw, however, that Pedro Sánchez would go out of his way to defend legislative reforms in the way he is doing.

“We are defending what is worthwhile, harmony, coexistence and union among Spaniards.

I do not want you to relive the dark and sad days of 2017," said the Prime Minister with unusual exaltation last weekend in Barcelona.

In fact,

There are those within the Government who maintain that Sánchez simply “plays Sánchez”: “He says things halfway, then he clarifies them.

Always dizzying the partridge ”.

But the fact is that the commitment has been fulfilled (also by ERC in the vote on the General Budgets), and yet the speech is not fully satisfactory.

“The Government considers that progress has been made with the Penal Code.

Therefore, you are satisfied.

But it is not the reform that I would do 100% ”, said the spokesperson for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja, on Tuesday.

ERC has also been involved in the story —shared by the central government— that the embezzlement reform in 2015 was a tailor-made suit for the PP against the independence movement, despite the fact that that reform reached Congress at the beginning of 2013, almost two years before that vote.

If in the Republican ranks they limit themselves to considering the government's measures as a mere fruit of the negotiation at the dialogue table, in the rest of the pro-independence forces the situation is lived even more coldly.

"An own goal has been scored", says one of the first swords of Junts.

The official thesis of that formation is almost identical to that put forward by the PP, Vox or Ciudadanos, that is, that Sánchez only intends to remain in the Executive and to achieve this he gives the Republicans perks such as legal changes.

It does not matter to Junts that those accused or convicted of their own ranks, beginning with Carles Puigdemont, may end up benefiting from the reform of the Penal Code.

For the Junts spokesman, Josep Rius, "the Spanish government wants to leave things where they were."

The PDeCAT, which for the moment is in favor of penal reform, is the only one that openly supports the change as a tool to consolidate the new political landscape away from unilateral adventures.

The CUP, for its part, believes that the new case of aggravated public disorder leaves the dozens of anonymous citizens who are on trial after protests of an independentist nature at the feet of the horses.

The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural also look askance at the changes for the same reason.

The commitment of Pedro Sánchez, they maintain, can only be measured if he opens up to negotiating an independence referendum.

A possibility that the Government has once again rejected this Tuesday.

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