The paving of Carles Puigdemont's way back to Spain, stripped of the accusation of the crime of sedition, is the
direct consequence of the homage paid by Pedro Sánchez to his pro-independence partners promoting legislative changes that pervert the constitutional spirit
.
Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena, in an order issued yesterday, coinciding with the entry into force of the penal reform that suppresses sedition and makes embezzlement cheaper, withdrew the crime of se
diction to
former president
and the rest of the independence leaders declared in absentia.
The judge leaves the accusation in a mere disobedience, since he considers that the referendum of October 1, 2017 in Catalonia does not fit into the new crime of aggravated public disorder.
Llarena argues that it was not necessary to eliminate sedition, rejecting that it contained "inaccuracies" or that it was not comparable to the European environment.
And, above all, she warns that this modification generates "a context close to decriminalization" for those who are pending trial for the secessionist process.
Llarena's message translates into an unprecedented reality in the history of Europe:
The Government has eliminated the criminal responsibility of those political leaders who, contrary to all legality, wanted to break national sovereignty by turning their citizens into foreigners
.
That is to say: thanks to the reform of the Government, the very serious events of 1-O, which Sánchez himself initially described as a rebellion, did not occur from the point of view of the attack on State institutions.
The examining magistrate
process
, whose resolution may anticipate the criteria of the Supreme Court to review the disqualification sentences of the pardoned leaders, does maintain the prosecution of Puigdemont for embezzlement, understanding that the reform of this crime does not affect the facts investigated.
Beyond the effects on others convicted and accused of corruption that may cause the reduction of embezzlement,
the express reform of the Penal Code is already causing notable damage
.
It not only facilitates the return of Puigdemont, whose procedural situation is pending before the European Justice, but also that of the escapees Marta Rovira and Clara Ponsatí, without exposing themselves to prison terms.
"It is what we had intended," Rovira boasted yesterday.
The government has not hesitated
override the general interest
to favor
ad hoc
those who perpetrated the illegal referendum.
This not only supposes a lacerating disaffection of the legal instruments to stop another separatist coup, but an exercise in institutional irresponsibility whose purpose is to preserve the parliamentary majority that supports the Executive.
The rule of law is left unprotected and its attackers are benefited.
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