Parties look for loopholes to justify appeals against pardons

Barcelona / MadridRain of resources to turn against pardons. The same day in which the pardon was made official with the exit of the prisoners from penitentiary centers, the unionist entity Convivencia Cívica Catalana lodged the first appeal against the pardon and the following day the parties began to do so. The leader of Cs, Inés Arrimadas, and the spokesman in Congress, Edmundo Bal, have moved this on Thursday to the Supreme Court to stage the initiative. The first political force of the Parliament during the legislature of the Catalan Independence bid has presented nine resources on behalf of the then head of the opposition and the deputies Carlos Carrizosa and José María Espejo-Saavedra. Ignoring the defense of the general interest and alleging the particular interest of the three is the way in which the orange party seeks to convince the third chamber of the high court that it is entitled to present an appeal.

The spokesman for Cs, Edmundo Bal, has argued that Arrimadas, Carrizosa and Espejo-Saavedra are affected because "they were deprived of their right to political participation" and already went before the Constitutional Court (TC) against the processing of the laws of disconnection. "And they won", Bal has remarked, who has said that "if they had standing to go to the TC it seems clear that they have it to go to the Supreme Court". In addition, in the resources the orange party asks for precautionary measures, i.e., that the pardon is reversed and political prisoners return to the prison while the Supreme Court studies their allegations. The leader of the party, Inés Arrimadas, has justified that the freedom of the leaders of the Catalan Independence bid is a "danger to the general interest".

A few hours after the presentation of the resources, the Supreme Court has agreed its admission to process and has required the Ministry of Justice to provide them with the files of pardons within 20 days. This step involves the implementation of the legal initiative of Cs after verifying that it has no formal defects. At the same time, it is an automatic management, which does not advance any decision on the merits of the case or on the legitimacy to go through.

The parade of appeals by the Supreme Court has continued with Vox, the second political formation to present allegations against the pardons. In fact, some jurists point out that the fact that the ultra right party was a popular accuser during the trial of the Catalan Independence bid may give it more options for the Supreme Court to consider it legitimised to argue. At the exit of the high court, the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has charged against the granting of the pardons - he said it is "a stab in the back to the Spaniards, the brave judges who condemned them and King Felipe VI" - but did not want to give any details about the content of his appeal and how they justify that they are affected by the pardon.

Double appeal of PP

The third political formation that before the concession of the pardons already warned that it would go against them is PP. The Popular Party has not yet filed any objection, but this Thursday it has warned that it will do so twice. As announced this Tuesday, the President of PP, Pablo Casado, will present an appeal as a particular alleging that he is a victim of the CDR and will try so that the high court will consider it affected by the departure of the leaders of the Catalan Independence bid from prison. But the popular still keep another attempt so that the Supreme Court gives way to their resources.

The Secretary General of the conservatives, Teodoro García Egea, has stated that PP as a political party will also appeal to the pardons. The reasons? "The Prosecutor's Office was the one who acted against the independentistas and thanks to these government measures, these gentlemen went to prison. Therefore, PP was indeed part of the process through the executive of Mariano Rajoy and the measures that were taken at the time, such as 155", Egea has justified in Telecinco. In this way, the popular party feel legitimised because it was the government of Rajoy, through the Prosecutor's Office, which laid the first stone of the case against political leaders.