Miquel Iceta said that, when the time came, pardons could be a way out for the leaders of the Independence bid who were to be tried in the Supreme Court. It was December 13, 2017, during the election campaign in Catalonia, and there was still more than a year to go before the trial and almost two for the conviction of sedition. Now it is an unknown whether or not former president Carles Puigdemont will return to Spain, but the Minister of Culture and Sports and leader of the Catalan Socialists' Party has already spoken in favour of granting pardons if he chooses to follow the same path as his former colleagues in Government. He did so this morning in an interview on RAC1, as last time: "I think he should decide to return and submit to the courts. Then, between all of us, we should be able to find happy solutions, as we have found with the pardon of those already sentenced by the Supreme Court".

Pardons, despite the joy they meant for prisoners and their families, were not an easy dish to digest. The measure of grace allowed them to leave prison, but it did not overrule the Supreme Court sentence, nor their ban from office, nor did it have any impact on the other cases which originated in the Independence bid. The feeling which remained in the pro-independence movement –and among those pardoned– is that the injustice persisted. A year later, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) has decided to hold an event to commemorate the release from prison of political prisoners and has done so both to vindicate the pardoned and demand amnesty and the dialogue table as ways to resolve the political conflict.

Parts of the independence movement felt discomfort at the very least after Catalan president Pere Aragonès's conference yesterday, which aimed to recover the movement's unity of action. JxCat agreed with the call for unity launched by the president, but reproached him for not sharing the content of the speech previously –which the president's office denies–, that he did not make specifics about his roadmap towards independence and that he made no references to the 2017 Independence Referendum. The party also interprets that Aragonès linked exile and pardons to negotiation with the State. Neither the pro-independence organisation ANC nor anticapitalists CUP were any more satisfied, but rather the opposite. In addition, the Spanish government has reacted coldly and still has not announced the date of the next meeting of the dialogue table, despite repeated requests from the president.

The third chamber of the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeals filed against the pardons of Catalan political prisoners with an argument that allows it to avoid having to enter into the merits of the case. What it has determined is that the parties (PP, Vox and Cs), entities and individuals who filed the appeals are not legitimised to do so. Although there is still the possibility of appealing the decision, everything points to the end of the nightmare of the prison sentences that the second chamber of the same court imposed on nine political and social leaders of the independence movement.

The pardon of political prisoners will not be repealed, after the third chamber of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals filed by PP, Vox and Cs. The court considers that the parties are not entitled to challenge the pardons and, therefore, the judges will not even have to analyse the case and determine whether Pedro Sánchez broke the law when granting the measure of grace. The procedure has not passed the preliminary phase in which it looks to see if MPs, parties and organisations that appealed the pardons were entitled to do so. The State Attorney's Office, representing the Spanish government, had argued they weren't. The court agreed.

The Courts' have accepted the pardons of political prisoners. The Supreme Court has rejected for the first time a complaint against the president of the Spanish government over the pardon of nine pro-independence leaders convicted over the Independence referendum, as has advanced eldiario.es and the high court has subsequently confirmed. The judges of the criminal chamber have rejected accusation of misfeasance presented by far-right Spanish Liberal Right party through lawyer José Ignacio Sánchez Rubio. The court's verdict, presided over by Manuel Marchena and with magistrate Susana Polo as rapporteur, is categorical and reproaches that the plaintiff does not offer "the minimum analysis of the criminal elements they invoke" and stresses that the measure of grace "has been applied by the competent authority' and that this cannot be considered "unjust or arbitrary".

After the cold reunion between Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras on July 7 in the House of the Republic almost four years after the 2017 Referendum, this Friday the president and the vice president of the Government that led the 2017 Referendum have met again in the celebration of 60 years of Òmnium in Elna, in North Catalonia. The organisation wanted to symbolise the reunion of freed prisoners and exiles with the will to turn the page on the discrepancies in the bosom of the pro-independence movement and work out a joint strategy to prepare for the new onslaught with the State. The estrangement between Puigdemont and Junqueras, however, has become evident again with few signs of cordiality between the two.

Cold reception in Waterloo. The leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has arrived this Wednesday at noon to the House of the Republic along with former Catalan ministers Raül Romeva, Meritxell Serret and Dolors Bassa and former Speaker Carme Forcadell. But unlike when meeting president Pere Aragonès, former president Puigdemont has not gone out to meet Junqueras at the door for the usual photoshoot while greeting each other. A few minutes later, however, they left together with former adviser Toni Comín and rapper Josep Valtònyc to take a group photograph at the door. There was a group photograph, but not of the two pro-independence leaders alone.

New show of support for Pedro Sánchez in his bid to resolve the conflict in Catalonia, and this time it was international. The secretary general of the UN, António Guterres, gave his blessing to the pardons this Friday in an indirect way during an appearance next to the Spanish president in Madrid. Asked about the measure of grace, the Portuguese leader said first of all that it is not appropriate for a UN secretary general to comment on "internal political issues".

The day after the Spanish president met with the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, in Madrid, Pedro Sánchez has closed the door to an agreed referendum in Catalonia. During the plenary session in Congress to give details of the granting of pardons - an explanation that has lasted more than half an hour - the socialist leader has been blunt: "There will be no referendum on self-determination unless those who support it manage to convince three-fifths of MPs to amend Article 2 of the Constitution and then Spaniards back the changes in a referendum. And I can already say that the PSOE will never accept it".

The serious noise of the slow armoured doors that close behind the prisoners, the walls, the plastic sheeting, the counts, the isolation, is left behind. And it is good news. With a face of happiness or a serious one, debating on what role to adopt after the pardon, the nine pro-independence politicians sentenced by the Supreme Court are on the street. In Belgium, Puigdemont, Comín and Puig, and Clara Ponsatí in Scotland, maintain the European legal pulse and await a sentence that allows them to put Spanish justice in evidence and pave the way for their return. Jaume Asens' strategy of promoting the reform of the crime of sedition is advancing and could bring the solution closer for the exiles, whom today a part of the Spanish judiciary and politics would like to see imprisoned and then throw the key to the sea.

Joaquim Forn (Barcelona, 1964) attends ARA from home through Zoom. He admits that he has not yet come to terms with the idea that he will not have to return to Lledoners prison.

With just four days to go before the meeting in Madrid between Pedro Sanchez and Pere Aragonès, this Friday the two presidents have disagreed on the limits the dialogue they are about to embark on must have. The Spanish president has shown himself to be in favour of dialogue between the two governments, but has set clear limits: respect for the "constitutional pact" and "democratic legality". Hours later, the Catalan president has replied that he will not renounce to putting forward two of his main demands: amnesty and self-determination. "Our only limit is the will of the citizens of Catalonia," he argued.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso has not waited even a week to start the friendly fire against Pablo Casado. On the day that the President of PP has asked the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, to resign for the granting of pardons, the President of the Community of Madrid has tried to overshadow its organic leader with an institutional statement - without questions - at the headquarters of the Puerta del Sol in which she has expressed her frontal rejection of the pardons. After the meeting of the governing council, has proclaimed that it will not allow that "companies and self-employed from Madrid, and much less the rest of taxpayers, pay for this party. Ayuso has thus linked an alleged collusion of Sanchez with sovereignism and tax policies of which he preaches".

Rain 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.

Carles Puigdemont will only have the possibility of being pardoned if he returns to Spain and is judged. This has been assured by the Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, who has stated that the Spanish government "does not consider in any case" an early pardon of the Catalan ex -President exiled in Belgium. Campo has admitted that this formula is possible, despite the fact that essentially the pardon requires that there is a firm conviction. There is, however, an exception.

The existence of close to 3,000 people with pending legal proceedings related to the 1-O Catalan independence referendum or the subsequent mobilizations has made independence restrain itself when it comes to celebrating the release of the nine political prisoners. But there is no doubt that after almost four years the pardons can be considered a victory for the independence movement, since the gesture of Pedro Sánchez's government would not be understood without the perseverance in the protest mobilizations, without the electoral support received by the pro-independence parties and, of course, without the judicial victories in Europe and the pressure of international organizations such as the Council of Europe or NGOs such as Amnesty International. It is all these factors, added to the PSOE's arithmetical need for the support of ERC in Parliament (that is, once again the pro-independence votes), which explains why a Spanish government has dared to overrule the judiciary with a decision that, predictably, has further inflamed the right-wing.

The pardons of the Spanish government have become effective and the political prisoners are now free. The nine pro-independence leaders imprisoned since the end of 2017 will sleep at home tonight and will not have to return to prison. As they left jail, a crowd gathered to receive them, including members of the Catalan Government such as the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, who was in Lledoners penitentiary. The released prisoners demanded amnesty for other victims of reprisals and assured that they will not change their pro-independence convictions or their political commitment to achieve the Catalan Republic. In short, that they will not do so despite the fact that it is the Spanish government that has promoted the measure of grace that has allowed them to leave prison before serving their entire sentence. "Repression has not defeated us," proclaimed the president of Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart.

This Tuesday, when the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, defended that the pardons are "the best decision for Catalonia and Spain" he was summarising the key of the argument by which his executive grants the pardons: the public utility of a decision that, he states, is taken thinking about the general interest. As stated in the files on Jordi Cuixart and Raül Romeva to which ARA has had access, the commitment to coexistence is the main theme of the Spanish government's motivation, even above the particular interests of those involved. In markedly political pardons, Sánchez's executive places the pardons as a first step to try to solve the Catalan conflict politically.

The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tse is credited with a phrase that perfectly describes the situation in which we find ourselves after the Spanish government approved the pardons for the nine political prisoners: "Even a thousand-mile-long journey begins with a first step". That is to say, any journey that one wishes to undertake, from the shortest to the longest, from the easiest to the most difficult, begins in the same way: with the small gesture of putting one foot in front of the other until a first step is completed. And this is what the Spanish government did this Tuesday: to take a first step and start a path that is full of obstacles and bends, but a step that was essential to start this uncertain journey with a minimum chance of success.