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Date Published: 14/11/2022

ARCHIVED - Sanchez changes Spanish treason laws to go easy on Catalan separatists

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Jailed Spanish independence fighters may see their sentences reduced by changes to sedition law

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Sanchez changes Spanish treason laws to go easy on Catalan separatists

Catalonia declares independence from Spain, October 27, 2017, in Barcelona

Spain’s President Pedro Sánchez is controversially pushing a new bill through parliament that will downgrade the existing crime of sedition and replace it with the crime of “aggravated public disorder”, a move that will effectively let imprisoned Catalan separatists and other supposed traitors to the state off the hook.

Up until now, anyone attempting to sidestep state sanctioned democracy in Spain could be charged with sedition, and if found guilty would face a maximum of 15 years in prison. Now, this sentence is being reduced to a maximum of 5 years.

Several Catalan politicians who organised the extralegal referendum on Catalan independence back in 2017 were imprisoned for their role in what was seen by some at the time as treason, and leader Carles Puigdemont was forced into exile in Brussels.

The change of heart with regard to the legal standing of these personas non grata from the government’s perspective is due in no small part to the fact that 2023 is an election year, and the PSOE Socialist government will be looking to placate and sweeten up its coalition partners such as the far-left independence parties in Spain.

In fact, Puigdemont has even claimed that unnamed government representatives have been to visit him to discuss options for partial independence for Catalonia, despite the fact that the government has publicly stated it will never support an independence referendum for the region that houses Barcelona.

The Spanish government is walking a fine line when it comes to regional independence movements, courting pro-independence parties with one hand while at the same time refusing to support the inclusion of Scotland into the EU without the rest of the United Kingdom unless such a move is backed by Westminster, as a way of avoiding setting precedent for unilaterally declared independence.

Government spokespeople have insisted that the change to the law is not motivated by such political manoeuvering, but rather “by social evolution and comparative law” since the existing legislation on the criminal offence of sedition “is 200 years old” and no longer exists “in the majority of European countries”.

“The Penal Code is riddled with outdated crimes that affect fundamental rights,” they say, including sedition, which “is very badly adapted to the current reality” and “does not conform to the standards of the countries around us”.

For instance, they assert that under the law as it is currently stipulated, “a general strike could have been classified as an act of sedition”, such as the truck drivers’ strike this November.

“Today many remnants of Francoism and 19th century authoritarianism still survive [in the Penal Code], the crime of sedition belongs to that world and affects the democratic quality of Spain,” they conclude.

Nonetheless, it is unsurprising that many who oppose Catalonia becoming an independent state separate from Spain are less than pleased with the new changes. The bill still needs to go through several revisions before it can be passed, and it will no doubt be watered down in its final form, but it is sure to be just the latest in a series of divisive policies in the runup to the general elections in Spain in November 2023.

Image: Archive

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