Amnesty. A word with the smell of mothballs is spreading again through Catalan and Spanish politics and the media. And somewhere else? ERC and Junts, with variations, claim it to support the investiture of the socialist candidate, Pedro Sánchez. They want amnesty for acts of political intention classified as crimes or administrative offenses linked to the fight for self-determination in Catalonia since 2013. His voters are supposed to see him well. The rest is not clear.
The independence movement represented by the Catalan National Assembly, critical of ERC and Junts, fears that the amnesty will act as a demobilizer. Its president, Dolors Feliu, assured in La Vanguardia a few days ago that it could be “even a trap” and deactivate the lawsuits before the European Court of Human Rights. None of the slogans of the four columns called for today's demonstration – Llibertat, Llengua, País, Sobirania – claim it.
The CUP, for its part, maintains that “an amnesty without self-determination will be little more than pardons 2.0.” Sumar's management is committed to finding ways to make it feasible. It is not known if the 1.2 million Catalans who voted for the PSC on June 23 are in favor, apart from assuming that this is one of the transactions for Sánchez to close the way to a right-wing government with the extreme right. PP and Vox are against.
When the Diada events close we will know if the amnesty has been one of the demands of the day in the streets or is seen as something for offices. Almost half a century ago, it was. On February 1, 1976, the great Catalan platform of anti-Francoism, the Assemblea de Catalunya, promoted a demonstration to demand amnesty for the more than six hundred political prisoners of Franco's regime. The dictator had died the previous November. Salvador Sánchez-Terán, civil governor of Barcelona, banned it. The entity that formally called it, the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona, claimed little room to call it off.
At eleven in the morning, the police were already waiting for the protesters at the starting point, the current Lluís Companys promenade. The charges against those gathered and those who were going there prevented them from making the planned route, along the Ronda Sant Pere to Plaza Catalunya. Between five thousand and twelve thousand people, according to sources, regrouped at the intersection of Paseo de Sant Joan and Travessera de Gràcia. As they advanced down Rosselló Street, the police blocked their way. The participants sat on the ground, but the charges were repeated until the demonstration was broken up.
A week later the anti-Francoists returned. On February 8, another demonstration was called in the Ciutadella park. As, once again, the police prevented it, the participants advanced in several columns to concentrate at various points in the city, such as the Sant Antoni market and the squares of the Sagrada Família, Letamendi or Virrei Amat. The civilian governor brought out almost more police than there were protesters on the street to ensure effective repression.
These two actions constituted the largest act of protest against the dictatorship since the tram strike of 1951 and acted as a shock and awareness-raising element for many. The clandestine press echoed it. The foreigner too. The historians David Ballester and Manel Risques argue in Temps d’amnistia. The demonstrations of l'1 i on February 8, 1976 in Barcelona (2011) that the number of people who demonstrated surprised the organizers themselves.
In July, induced by the Pax Christi organization - with leaders such as the imprisoned Lluís Maria Xirinacs, Arcadi Oliveres and Àngel Colom - the March for Freedom began. A series of columns that toured different parts of the Catalan Countries to demand amnesty, freedoms and the Statute. Manuel Fraga, Minister of the Interior, banned them and there were numerous arrests, as reported by Josep Calvet and Oriol Luján in Poble català, start walking. 40 years of the Freedom March (2016).
On July 30, 1976, the government of Adolfo Suárez, who had been president of Spain for less than a month, approved a partial amnesty for some political prisoners. The pressure of anti-Francoism was taking its toll. Without these previous actions, it cannot be understood that the 1976 Diada brought together nearly one hundred thousand people under the motto “Liberty, amnesty, Statute of autonomy.” The agreement between the Assemblea de Catalunya, the Consell de Forces Pítiques, the non-grouped forces and the civil governor allowed the commemoration for the first time since the end of the Civil War. In Sant Boi de Llobregat, because the Suárez government and Sánchez-Terán himself, who would soon be a key man for the reestablishment of the Generalitat, did not allow it in Barcelona. They were afraid.
A year later, on October 15, 1977, the Cortes unanimously – except for the abstention of Alianza Popular – approved the Amnesty law for political prisoners and a wide spectrum of crimes, but also for authorities, officials and agents. of order, even if they had violated people's rights. The latter prevented the purging of the security forces and many considered it a goal for the demands of anti-Francoism.
At the time of channeling his reformist project and proposing the legalization of political parties, the democratization of Spain and an amnesty “as broad as possible,” Suárez had expressed that it was about “elevating to the political category of normal what at the level street is just normal ”. Perhaps tonight we will know if the amnesty that the independence movement is now demanding is also an amnesty.
