"Catalonia, Catalans, we love you": Pedro Sánchez's speech in 10 quotes

The Spanish government has decided to devote all its time and energies to betting on harmony, and that is why tomorrow I will propose to grant the pardons ”

It might seem that this decision affects only them, but it is addressed to the whole of Catalan and Spanish society ”

With this action we are materially taking nine people out of prison, but we are symbolically adding millions and millions of people to coexistence. Hence the clear public usefulness of this measure ”

In the balance of political decisions, the future must matter much more than the past. That is why, despite understanding the motives of those who reject pardons, the Spanish government has opted to open the way to reconciliation and reunion ”

The pardon neither questions nor revokes their sentence. It is simply another setting, no longer the judicial one ”

We are in a position to ask everyone, those who share the measure and those who do not, to at least recognise its full legality and its absolute constitutionality ”

This is a message above all for the thousands of people who supported them. And even more so, for the thousands of people who disagreed with their conduct but who consider the punishment they received to be sufficient ”

Those who oppose pardons say that those who receive them will not abandon their ideals. Would they change theirs if they were imprisoned? Democracy is open to a multitude of projects ”

We do not expect those who defend independence to abandon their ideals. The only thing we demand is that both sides abide by the constitutional pact. Outside loyalty to democracy and legality there is no room for politics ”

Tomorrow we can change the lives of nine people and I also hope that we begin to change the history of all of us. Catalonia, Catalans, we love you ”