First ridicule, then capitulation and, finally, shelter in his home court, back turned to European justice. Judge Pablo Llarena, discredited to extremes that would demand his immediate resignation from the case, like that of the members of the second chamber of the Supreme Court who have backed him to date, has withdrawn all the European Arrest Warrants which were being processed in different European countries. That against president Carles Puigdemont in Germany, ministers Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig in Belgium, minister Clara Ponsatí in Scotland and ERC's secretary general, Marta Rovira, in Switzerland, the same country former CUP deputy Anna Gabriel is in.
The seven pro-independence Catalan politicians will remain free citizens in free countries. Spanish justice has been seriously bruised and its international prestige damaged. There are not, at this time, protective layers to hide from the planet the mess the Spanish state has put together, which on the one hand invented a non-existent coup d'état and which, on the other, is resisting investigating the revelations about the assets of the former head of state from his very good friend Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
It's obvious that we have to celebrate the repercussions of Llarena's decision and declare ourselves convinced that justice has ended up being done with the exiles thanks to the decisions by Germany and Belgium. The internationalisation strategy with Catalan politicians in different countries has been devastating, laying bear the great lie the Spanish state set underway last autumn to suspend Catalan autonomy, overthrow the Catalan government in a soft coup and protected by the Spanish Constitution, and to put at the head of the Catalan government, in the election on 21st December last year, a friendly party with the independence movement on the Parliament's opposition benches. The German decision has encouraged a domino effect in other countries and judge Llarena has got scared.
Now, it can be dressed up all you want, Germany can be accused of a lack of solidarity with Spain or giving shelter with its decisions over the Catalan independence movement. They'll all be excuses. The only reality is that with political and media control and the corresponding injection of money, a whole string of lies can be constructed within our borders, but Europe is another matter. Its democracy is another matter, as is its justice.
Pedro Sánchez's new government shouldn't make a mistake in its first reading of the German decision or now of judge Llarena's decision. It's fully evident now that the Supreme Court judge, after being undermined, will concentrate the punishment on the Catalan political prisoners, as he's done so far. Of the two possible paths, accepting his error or ploughing ahead ignoring it, he will take the second. The Spanish government has enough tools, starting with the public prosecution service, to prevent this desperate escape. So far everything but justice has been done and this needs to be brought to an end. The Catalan prisoners must be released immediately and have a fair trial in the autumn. Something which currently, sadly, is not guaranteed.