Spanish Prime Minister says that pardons are "the best for Catalonia and Spain"

USPA NEWS - “It is time to turn the page,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday in an institutional statement without journalists in the room, after the Government meeting that approved pardons for nine convicted and imprisoned Catalan pro-independence leaders. "We cannot ignore each other," added Sánchez, who considers that it is "worthwhile" to attempt a new stage of dialogue between Catalonia and Spain.

The Spanish Prime Minister claims to understand the rejection that a large part of Spanish society expresses towards pardons, especially since none of the nine imprisoned leaders has shown repentance and, in addition, all of them have expressed their intention to re-declare the independence of Catalonia when they're free. However, Pedro Sánchez believes that pardons are "the best for Catalonia and Spain and the most consistent with the spirit of harmony and coexistence of the Constitution."

The judicial process, Sánchez affirmed in his televised institutional statement, "concluded with the final judgment of the Supreme Court, which the Government does not question." After weighing the reasons for or against, the Spanish Government has estimated that there are "reasons of public utility" for pardons: "the need to reestablish coexistence and harmony within Catalan society and throughout the Spanish society."

The pardons approved on Tuesday do not require the beneficiaries to change their ideas. "We do not expect such a thing," stressed Pedro Sánchez. "They were not imprisoned for their ideas but for their acts contrary to the current legislation," added the president.

Supreme Court sources expressed, in statements to journalists, their displeasure at the granting of pardons. The High Court must now readjust the sentences of the nine Catalan independence leaders. The pardons commute the jail time that remains pending, but maintain the disqualification and condition the release of the prisoners to not committing crimes again within a period of between 3 and 6 years, depending on the case.