“It’s an initiative that will help calm the situation in Catalonia,” assured Pedro Sanchez Thursday evening on television. There are still a few days, nothing indicated that the government had decided to move forward in the reform of the offense of sedition. The political music changed radically when the President of the Government announced the elimination of this offense from the penal code, during a television interview.
Pedro Sanchez wasted no time: as of this Friday, November 11, the Socialist and Podemos groups, the two political parties in the Spanish government coalition, tabled a bill in the Congress of Deputies. One way to avoid a draft law in the Council of Ministers, a longer process that would have required opinions from the Council of State and the General Council of the Judiciary (equivalent to the Council of the Judiciary). This bill will in fact introduce a new offense of “public disorder”with sentences ranging from three to five years in prison, compared to four to fifteen years for sedition.
The return to calm in Catalonia, a major objective of Sanchez
After the serious crisis of the illegal self-determination referendum organized in Catalonia by the independence authorities in October 2017, nine former separatist leaders were sentenced in October 2019 and imprisoned, including Oriol Junqueras, the former vice-president of the Catalan government, for misdemeanors “of sedition and embezzlement”to thirteen years in prison.
Since coming to power in January 2020, the socialist leader had made a return to calm in Catalonia one of his objectives. He actually proceeded in stages. If he has, from the start, dismissed the amnesty – despite the insistent demands of the separatists -, his government in June 2021 granted a pardon to these nine former separatist leaders in prison. Always with this same desire to “reconciliation” between Madrid and Catalonia.
To achieve the announcement of the suppression of the sedition, it took an agreement with the left separatists in Catalonia, whose regional president, Pere Aragonès, did not hide his satisfaction on Friday: “This is a very important step to end all forms of repression. » Pere Aragonès scores points along the way, and shows that his pragmatic policy of agreements makes it possible to obtain progress. In hollow, it is also a way of underlining his growing distance with the other independence party, Carles Puigdemont, who also left the Catalan government with a bang a month ago.
An electoral risk
Carles Puigdemont, more of a follower of a frontal opposition policy, could nevertheless benefit in the long term from the abolition of the offense of sedition. Exiled in Belgium since 2017, he is still accused of this crime. If the sedition disappears, the penalties incurred could be less but he also remains accused of “embezzlement”. His first reaction, far from being enthusiastic, also reflects a certain skepticism.
Pedro Sanchez, aware that “the Spaniards have doubts”, is still taking a risk with this measure. The right-wing opposition is already accusing him “historical irresponsibility”. Within the Socialist Party itself, there is no shortage of skeptics, including some regional leaders, worried about the consequences among their voters.