When one is a minister and occupies the number three position in the hierarchy of a party like the Socialists (PSOE), one should be capable of something slightly better than a response inspired by the fear of angering the right with the issue of a possible pardon to the Catalan prisoners. The way in which José Luis Ábalos, the authorised Spanish government spokesperson on Sunday, presented the matter explains very clearly why the Socialists aligned themselves with the Popular Party and Ciudadanos in October 2017 with the suspension of Catalan autonomy and the application of article 155. A steamrolling of Catalan power combined with fierce repression to eliminate any sign of a response in the future. The independence movement has made mistakes, and serious ones, it is true; just as it is true that it has resisted the political, judicial and media attack with, as its only weapons, the people who have supported it.
Specifically, what Ábalos says is that "the Spanish government has a legal obligation to consider the requests for pardons and a moral obligation to alleviate tensions that could damage social harmony." With regard to these legal obligations, there's nothing to be said: the public prosecutors have already spoken against the pardons, we can expect the Supreme Court to do the same and the Spanish government is following the law. Another thing is what the minister told newspaper La Vanguardia is a moral obligation and this theory of "relieving tensions that can damage social harmony." If what the minister wants is to alleviate the tensions that can damage social harmony, the Spanish government should address the fiscal deficit, which will improve the lives of Catalans, or comply with the investment agreements made by Ábalos's own ministry in infrastructures.
And if, underneath all this, there really is a proposal - which I doubt - to alleviate tensions, then he should promote an amnesty, tell the truth about the Supreme Court trial, or about the total sentence of more than a hundred years in prison to the nine political prisoners who are at present spending their fourth Christmas in jail. That would be to fulfill his moral obligation, when he knows full well that the European court will tear the matter apart - although it will then be too late - when it is finally asked to consider the conviction for offences which, as was shown in the trial, were not as stated. There was neither an offence of rebellion as the public prosecutors argued, nor sedition as the court presided over by Manuel Marchena understood, wrongly, in my opinion. But a lesson had to be taught with the future in mind.
And if there is no willingness to take this step, not from him, nor from the PSOE, nor the Spanish government - because the deep state is not willing to lose these battles, even less with the crisis of the Spanish monarchy now opened right up - then let us not talk about tensions that might damage social harmony. In Catalan society people are very adept at recognizing those who speak without saying anything. And worse still, without any desire to do anything.