After Pedro Sánchez has already pardoned nine pro-independence advocates, the law on sedition is now to be abolished. The conservative opposition speaks of a “historical mistake”.
Pedro Sánchez wants to abolish the centuries-old paragraph punishing violent unrest in Spain.
The Spanish government is making a new attempt to normalize relations with Catalonia. Pedro Sánchez’s minority government presented a draft law on Friday to reduce penalties for violent unrest, which would primarily benefit Catalan independence supporters.
The previous criminal offense of “riot” (sedicion) with a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment is to be deleted. Instead, the criminal offense of “serious disturbance of public order” is to be introduced and punished with a maximum sentence of five years. The amendment to the law should come into force before the end of the year.
What at first glance looks like a cosmetic correction has great symbolic power in Catalonia. Because since the referendum on the separation from Spain on October 1, 2017, which was banned by the Madrid constitutional court and the subsequent mammoth trial in which nine pro-independence supporters were sentenced to long prison terms, the relationship with Madrid has been strained.
The judges justified the high sentence for the separatists at the time by saying that they had instigated a “riot”. This was despite the fact that pro-independence advocates did not resort to violence. The application of a law originally aimed at preventing a military coup caused protests – in Catalonia but also abroad.
Military coups should be prevented
“This paragraph is 200 years old and was enshrined in the constitution at a time that has nothing to do with today,” said Patxi López, spokesman for the Socialists. With this step, the aim is to align the criminal offense with that of other European countries. In addition, Spain is also complying with a recommendation by the Council of Europe, which recommended that Madrid abolish the riot paragraph and even stated that human rights had been violated in the Catalonia conflict.
Catalonia’s Prime Minister Pere Aragonès from the left-wing republican party ERC welcomed the legislative initiative. The abolition of the riot clause is an important step to end all forms of repression, but much remains to be done.
For the conservative Partido Popular, which always saw the referendum in Catalonia as an attempted coup, Sánchez’s initiative is a mistake of historic proportions. “The separatists will not rest,” said opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The conservatives accuse Sánchez of serving the separatists in order to get a parliamentary majority for next year’s budget. In fact, the socialist minority government needs the support of the thirteen ERC MPs in the Madrid House of Representatives for important votes.
Puigdemont remains suspicious
Sánchez’s new initiative could pave the way for former Catalan vice-president and ERC chief Oriol Junqueras to return to politics. Junqueras was sentenced to 13 years in prison in the separatist trial but was pardoned by the government last year. However, he is still not allowed to hold any public office until 2031. With the legal reform, however, he could be nominated by his party as a candidate in 2025.
However, his companion, the former Catalan Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since November 2017, was skeptical. The offense will not be abolished, only the name will be changed and the sentence reduced, explained Puigdemont, who is a member of the European Parliament for his party Junts per Catalunya (JxCat).
El president Sánchez and the vice president Díaz parlen de reformar el delicte de sedició. Alguns ho celebren i ho venen com si fos la derogació del delicte. Però no és el mateix. El delicte no es deroga: se li canvia el nom i s’anuncia una rebaixa de penes. Alerta.
— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) November 10, 2022
For the left republicans of Pere Aragonès, Sánchez’s advance is an important stage win. Because the party relied on a dialogue with Madrid in the independence process, which brought it sharp criticism from JxCat, which is sticking to a unilateral course of secession. JxCat left the governing coalition a month ago, and since then ERC has governed with 33 of the 135 deputies in the Catalan House of Representatives in Barcelona.