The bittersweet taste of an incomplete first Christmas at home

BarcelonaThree years later, Joaquim Forn, Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart and Josep Rull will be home for Christmas. They will leave behind the greyness of prison, where they have spent the last three Christmas days - two in Rull's case - to share a table with their loved ones. The four have served a quarter of their sentence and will leave Lledoners for a few hours on one of the 36 permits they have each year. On the other hand, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva, Dolors Bassa and Carme Forcadell will have to stay in prison. And surely that's why the feeling of those who have returned home for a few hours is bittersweet. But also a mirage, really. "They've had Christmas leave, but they live in prison," recalls Forn's partner, Laura Masvidal.

The Forn family's high spirits at being able to spend Christmas together again after three years was dampened a bit by the pandemic. They won't all be able to get together, but they will take advantage of digital platforms that allow us to see our loved ones without putting ourselves at risk. "We will try to give all the meaning to Christmas," says Masvidal, who remembers how hard the first Christmas with Forn locked up in Estremera prison was. Forn himself talks about this in the programme Nadal a la presó, which is broadcast today on local stations: "It was very hard because it was the first Christmas and because of the distance. This year he believes it is a "step towards freedom", but there is still a long way to go. As Jordi Sànchez also relates, he stresses the hope that he can recover part "of a normality that would never have had to be broken".

When Sànchez, Forn, Cuixart and Rull return to prison after 24 or 48 hours' leave, they will be confined for 22 hours in the cell before being given a PCR and knowing the result. The pandemic has hardened life inside the prison, and those who will be able to spend these hours with their families find it hard not to think about those who will have to spend another Christmas behind bars. It will be Oriol Junqueras's fourth. "It is impossible not to remember them," says Sànchez. "I'll be at home, but with my heart broken for leaving the rest in prison," adds Josep Rull. "We visited him two days ago for an hour and a half. We won't see him again until next year", says Raül Romeva's partner, Diana Riba. She explains that due to the pandemic prison visits have been reduced to two a month.

"It is very painful"

Also for Carme Forcadell and Dolors Bassa, who have not been back in prison for just under a month after the Supreme Court revoked their semi-freedom. "I would never have thought it would be so hard for us. We've been seeing her every day for a few months now, and for her to go back in is very painful, no matter how much I expected it," laments Dolors Bassa's sister, Montse Bassa. In Puig de les Basses, her mother and son will be visiting the former minister today, because the pandemic has also limited the number of people who can visit. The vice president of the Catalan Government, Pere Aragonès, and the spokesperson of ERC, Marta Vilalta, went to see the former Parliament speaker, Carme Forcadell, at Wad-Ras prison yesterday. Both of them denounced the prisoners' situation as an example that the "repression" of the State does not stop.

So does Diana Riba, who denounces that if the prisoners "were treated by the justice system like any other inmate, they would be spending Christmas at home. On January 14, the Justice Department is required to review the classification of the prisoners, a procedure that it does by default every half year. However, the pro-independence leaders who are not yet allowed to enjoy prison permits have their sights set on when they will serve a quarter of their sentence and will be allowed to leave for a few hours. "Dolors has her sights set on this date [February 10] to hold on," says Montse Bassa. Because as long as there is no amnesty, pardon or reform of the penal code to get them out of jail, it is the only hope they have.