One of the great myths of the world of football has been Bill Shankly, who was a Liverpool player and coach, and who handled the ball as well as he did with words. Among the phrases that have remained in history is this: “The problem with referees is that they know the rules, but not the game.” I have remembered her reading the nine-page document by Vicente Guilarte, president of the General Council of the Judiciary, in which he justified his abstention in the plenary session that addressed the legality of the amnesty, when he had two opposing reports on the table: one in favor of the law, written by the member Mar Cabrejas, from the progressive sector, and another against, contributed by Wenceslao Olea, member of the conservative sector.
Guilarte, who is interim president, turns out to be one of the referees who not only knows the rules, but also the game, since he has abstained, agreeing with the right, which is the one who promoted it.
Guilarte's abstention is a toast to the sun. What does the acting president of the CGPJ say? Well, unlike all known amnesty laws, this is a grace measure that contains political counterparts, denies that amnesty can be a bargaining chip to achieve a parliamentary majority and rejects that the norm is intended to achieve political pacification and coexistence in Catalonia.
But the most singular thing is when the magistrate develops a moral parable, comparing the granting of amnesty with the donation of a kidney: “A kidney can be donated for free, but not in exchange for a price. In the same way, it would not be possible to pardon, much less amnesty, in exchange for an onerous benefit.”
It will be difficult for the amnesty to go ahead, although it will surely be imposed. But things have not been done well, since there has been no pedagogy on the part of the Government, nor has the independence movement wanted to moderate its discourse. Guilarte's neutrality is that of the referee who knows the rules and the game equally. What is not understood is his abstention, when it is a frontal and relentless attack against the amnesty. Or maybe yes.
