ERC prisoners refuse to answer Supreme Court on pardons: "The solution starts with an amnesty"

BarcelonaThe Supreme Court on Wednesday gave political prisoners five days to make their position on pardons known as a prior step to the Court's report on the issue. On Wednesday ARA already advanced that neither the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, nor the former Minister Raül Romeva intended to answer, and this Thursday the republican party announced that neither do the former Speaker of the Catalan Parliament Carme Forcadell nor ex Minister Dolors Bassa. The four political prisoners who are part of ERC want to make clear they do not believe pardons are the solution to the political conflict. "The solution has to be collective and starts with the amnesty of all repressed people," they said in a statement.

Apart from the political motivation, there is also a technical issue that justifies not answering. The four prisoners argue that the law does not provide that those affected have to pronounce on their own pardon and, therefore, understands that "it is not mandatory compliance" to do so. In fact, they consider that the Supreme Court's request is completely unprecedented and conclude that it was done for "purely political issues". That is, they interpret that the only thing the judge wants is to show them up. This opinion is shared by the president of Òmnium Cultural, who accused the Supreme Court of only seeking Catalan prisoners' "humiliation".

Forcadell, in an interview with Europa Press, has addressed the issue in more depth. Like Cuixart, she criticised that they are looking for a mockery of the prisoners: "They want to humiliate us. Personally I will not answer, because I do not know why they are asking me this question, when in other cases it was not asked". However, she has also interpreted that the absence of an answer should not hinder the process that is underway, since she considers that the final decision lies solely with the Spanish government, "regardless of what the Supreme Court thinks"

"I don't want to get ahead of myself.

The issue of the pardon is a complex issue for the prisoners. On the one hand, they criticise that it is not the solution they are looking for to get out of prison, but, on the other, there are those who would appreciate it in order to be able to return home to their families. The former Speaker of the Catalan Parliament has replied that she will only express her views when and if the pardons arrive: "I do not want to talk because it also affects our families a lot [...]. When it arrives I will state my views; for the moment it has not arrived yet. I don't want to get ahead of myself".