Aragonès calls on Sanchez to take steps to free the prisoners: "It is necessary for everyone to take a stand"

BarcelonaAfter the Supreme Court confirmed yesterday that it has no intention of lowering its pressure on the pro-independence prisoners and revoking the open prison regime, the vice president of the Catalan Government and national coordinator of ERC, Pere Aragonès, has warned the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, on Saturday, that the time has come to make a move. "The Supreme Court has already given its opinion, now it is necessary for everyone to take a stance", Aragonès said, in declarations to journalists during a visit to Santpedor. He also stated that the time has come "to articulate all the mechanisms of dialogue and negotiation" to promote an amnesty law.

In spite of the PSOE's direct opposition to an amnesty law, Aragonès has defended that it is the best solution because it gives "a political answer to a problem that is political". Even so, he has remarked that "if someone has some other solution, let them put it on the table and commit to it". With the Spanish government's door to amnesty closed, the two options that appear possible are the reform of the Penal Code to redefine the crime of sedition and reduce the sentences of pro-independence leaders, and pardons. Both paths have been initiated, but they are advancing very slowly.

In recent weeks, and as the budgetary negotiations have progressed, public and private pressures have multiplied from both the ERC and the PDECat, and also from the comuns, to speed up the path of pardons and the reform of sedition, so that the prisoners can leave prison before the Catalan elections. The PSOE, however, is holding back, and this very Friday the first vice-president, Carmen Calvo, reproached Podemos for its haste - which was conditioned by the proximity of February 14th - and stressed in declarations to RNE that the pardon process is regulated and can still be delayed "between four and five months".

In view of the Socialists' immobility, this Saturday the spokesperson of Unidas Podemos in Parliament, Jaume Asens, once again pressured the PSOE. In statements to RAC1, he has denied that the pardon process can be delayed by almost five months (as Calvo said) and has defended that, once the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor's Office send their reports to the government, the latter can immediately decide on the release of the prisoners.

Optimist about pardons

Asens has also criticised the PSOE for speaking "frivolously" about the sedition reform timetable. In addition, the MP of the comuns has criticized that the socialist part of the government has not yet gotten back to them regarding the proposal of the reform of sedition made by the comuns, nor have they put their counter-proposal on the table. "Months are going by and the time is coming when we must be more forceful", he said.

However, Asens seems optimistic about the future of the pardons. Although he stressed that the PSOE must speak about the position that it will take in this debate, he explained that he has had private conversations on this subject with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Vice President, Carmen Calvo, and the Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, and that he can be "optimistic".