Those who oppose the amnesty, when their arguments are exhausted, use as their last reasoning the lack of repentance of the condemned Catalan independentists. It seems to me that they confuse constitutional principles and values with the sacrament of confession. Those of us who have memorized Father Astete's catechism, unknown to current generations, learned that for sins to be forgiven one must have heartache, attrition and purpose of amendment, complemented with a renunciation of Satan (unilateral independence) to his pomps and above all his works (voting at the polls and in Parliament).
This brief religious dabble allows me to confront the detractors of the amnesty due to the lack of repentance and purpose of the amnesty amendment. In a democratic society that respects ideological freedom and the right to access, under conditions of equality, public functions and positions, the possibility of all citizens, including those granted amnesty, being able to carry out any political activity and therefore supposed to stand for election to join Parliaments or Governments.
The agreement signed between the PSOE and Junts contains a renunciation of the unilateral path to achieve independence, but we all know that political pacts, at some point, can be broken without anyone being scandalized since it is common in political life. The amnesty law must go through the filter of its constitutionality. In a society in which democratic principles and the rule of law are respected, all legislative production and parliamentary decisions can be annulled without the need to criminalize them. Our Constitution has the necessary and sufficient political instruments to restore legality. The application of article 155 is sufficient where appropriate.
Jordi Cuixart, when giving the last word in the trial before the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court and other politicians on subsequent occasions, have stated that they would do it again. That is, approve laws in Parliament, make executive decisions and repeat everything previously done to launch the roadmap to reach a unilateral declaration of independence. The amnesty fully restores all their civil and political rights, so if they have a sufficient parliamentary majority they could try again. If at some point Junts decides to break the pact, a reasonable political reflection on its possibilities should lead them to the conclusion that it is a path to nowhere because our Constitution prevents it.
The Founding Treaty of the European Union, in its article 14, entrusts the Union with the promotion of territorial cohesion. On the other hand, the Treaty of the European Union, in its article 4, considers the guarantee of its territorial integrity to be the exclusive competence of the Member States. Now, in no case can acts of this nature be considered criminal, which is why Catalan pro-independence politicians have nothing to regret. In the future, what they should do are coherent and feasible policies, such as the search for an agreement with the central government to reach a formula that allows the citizens of Catalonia to speak out.
Those who demand a purpose of the amendment to obtain the amnesty should examine their conscience to assess whether everything that happened in 2017 and that is narrated in the proven facts of the sentence can constitute a crime in a democratic society. The decision of the President of the Government Rajoy and the Minister of the Interior Zoido ordering violent repression of those who came to cast their vote at the polls, moved international public opinion and the same judicial resolution recognizes that in the early hours of the afternoon: “Given that the use of force could become disproportionate” (Page 54 of the Judgment) the Police and the Civil Guard were ordered to withdraw. In any democratic system the order would have led to resignations.
Once the Amnesty Law Proposal has been registered, with a Preamble that lays down any legal argument to the contrary, voices continue to be heard questioning it for violating the principle of equality and attacking the separation of powers. As I consider that those who use these arguments are not ignorant, it seems to me that this is crude manipulation.
The amnesty repairs the undue criminalization of everything that happened. The condemning sentence explicitly recognizes this when it says (page 269): "The plot was definitively aborted with the mere display of some pages of the Official State Gazette that published the application of article 155 of the Constitution to the Autonomous Community of Catalonia" . It should have started this way. It is healthy and necessary to return to the starting box.
