The new Spanish minister for the prime minister's department, Félix Bolaños - that is, Pedro Sánchez's new right-hand man, taking the place of the once-mighty Iván Redondo - announced on Tuesday that the Spanish government does not intend to amend the Penal Code to reform the crimes of rebellion and sedition. The commitment made by the former justice minister, Juan Carlos Campo, to take the matter to parliament and get it passed by the end of 2020 was already torn up last year, with the Spanish executive giving the excuse that the pardons for the political prisoners had to come first. Those partial pardons came at the end of June as Catalonia celebrated the festival of Sant Joan, and with them, the non-complying Mr Sánchez changed his plans. Nothing new in the case of the Spanish PM, who is a specialist in making commitments and not delivering on them.
First he changed the discourse: the Spanish government erected a barrier emphasising the importance of the pardons and asserting that it had done everything it had to do, and from now on would talk about the politics of autonomous regions. Secondly, he changed the cabinet: the minister Campo, damaged by various conflicts and targeted by the right for having signed the pardons, gave up his place to Madrid's Pilar Llop, who had previously been speaker of the Senate. Thirdly, he changed the political narrative and the weighting in his government of junior partners Podemos and the Comuns, the chief backers of amending the Penal Code: now, his government spokespeople want to ensure that every day there is talk about the expansion of El Prat airport and the possible Catalan Winter Olympics of 2030, these being two elements that Sánchez believes will prompt the pro-independence agenda to change and make Catalonia return to the fold of loyal autonomous communities within a reasonable time.
The Catalan government, which backs both projects but with nuances - apparently with Junts more in favour than ERC - will have to figure out how to get out of the entangling web that Sánchez has prepared, to avoid giving the impression that there really is a trade-off under which the goal of Catalonia's independence is set back. A goal that should be at the forefront of political action by the parties that won the February 14th elections with this in their programmes.
But back to the Penal Code. I have never been a staunch supporter of the reform of the sedition law as proposed by the Comuns since, when one looks at other European penal codes, there are many countries that simply either do not have such a law or have eliminated it. What others have done is lower sentences to a maximum of five years. It is obvious that the Spanish code is obsolete and out of date and, consequently, the only possible reform would be its complete elimination, something that the PSOE is not even considering. First, because it does not believe in it, and also because it is not strong enough, as the deep state would prevent it, with the excuse of not having a strong-enough penalty to forcefully punish any possible repetition of the events of October 2017 in Catalonia.
But in politics, as in so many things in life, it’s good to always remember what is at stake. And seeing Sánchez repeatedly fail to honour his commitments should serve, at least, to avoid falling into his trap. And also to avoid providing an excuse - since the ending, with him, has already been written.