Separatists packed off to jail
MADRID: Catalan separatists who tried to break away from Spain in 2017 were handed jail sentences of up to 13 years yesterday by the Supreme Court in Madrid in an unprecedented ruling that marks a watershed in relations with the troubled region.
Former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras was handed the stiffest sentence. Carles Puigdemont, the regional leader who was the figurehead of the movement, remains in exile in Brussels after fleeing Spain two years ago.
The convictions will inject an extra dose of rancour into Spain’s political system as the country prepares for its fourth general election in as many years on Nov 10. Despite winning the last vote in April, acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez failed to piece together a majority as he struggled to manage the divisions left behind by the Catalan crisis.
Mr Sanchez’s Socialists claimed almost twice as many seats as their nearest challenger but failed to reach an agreement with their potential partner in government in part because of their disagreements over Catalonia. While the anti-establishment group Podemos is ready to allow the Catalans a referendum on independence, that is beyond the pale for Mr Sanchez, wary of a backlash from party members in the rest of Spain.
Spain’s third-biggest party, Ciudadanos, would have been a natural partner for Mr Sanchez — the two groups agreed to a coalition deal in 2015 but lacked the votes to implement it — but the party’s economic stance was overwhelmed by its opposition to the separatists, opening a rift with Mr Sanchez.
The four-month trial was the most politically charged hearing that Spain has seen since another Catalan leader, Lluis Companys, was tried in 1940 after he too had declared independence. A military court under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco convicted Companys and sentenced him to death after hearing evidence for a single day.
Junqueras has a portrait of Companys on the wall above his desk in his party headquarters in downtown Barcelona.
Catalonia’s push for independence added a Spanish dimension to populist surge that roiled politics across the western world following the financial crisis.