On June 22, Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez riled both sides of the Catalan independence debate by issuing pardons to nine jailed secessionists, all of whom are now free. He’s being portrayed as dangerously lenient by the Spanish right and insufficiently lenient by separatists, who demand nothing less than full amnesties for their formerly incarcerated leaders. But in the deafening row over which side is right, one fundamental fact has been forgotten: The sentences were excessive in the first place.
In October 2019, nine leading separatists—including Oriol Junqueras, a former vice president of the region, and Carme Forcadell, ex-president of the Catalan Parliament—were found guilty by Spain’s Supreme Court of sedition and/or misuse of public funds. The crimes were committed in connection with the independence referendum of Oct. 1, 2017, in which 92 percent of the 43 percent of registered voters who turned out opted for secession. For holding the referendum in defiance of Spain’s Constitutional Court, which outlawed the vote almost a month in advance, the separatists received sentences ranging from nine to 13 years, of which they’d served almost four when the pardons were granted.
