It has taken more than eight years, but eventually the extreme-right supporters who violently stormed a Catalan cultural centre in Madrid will have to go to prison. After a long judicial journey, section 30 of the Provincial Court of Madrid has issued an order for ten of the fourteen people convicted for the events at the Blanquerna book store on Catalan National Day in 2013. The judge acted after the Constitutional Court had rejected as lacking "constitutional significance" the appeal against the sentence filed by Pedro Chaparro, leader of the neo-fascist party Democracia Nacional.
Specifically, ten of the men convicted in the case have been told they must collect their prison entry orders between November 25th and 29th, and after that, they will have ten days to enter the prison of their choice. Two of the convicts had been subject to arrest warrants after disappearing, but one of these was captured and is already serving his sentence at the Victoria Kent precinct. The other is still missing. Finally, there are two others, who have asked the Spanish government for a pardon. In this regard, the court has sent a communication to the Supreme Court to find out the status of the pardon processing report for these two, who up till now have had their entry into prison suspended on an interim basis. The justice system imposed the interim suspension in April, after the orders for entry into prison had already been issued.
It has been eight years since the group of ultras violently invaded the cultural centre in the Blanquerna bookshop, which is part of the Catalan government's delegation in Madrid, to sabotage the event being held to mark Catalonia's National Day, the Diada, in 2013. However, none of them has yet spent a single day in prison.
The Blanquerna case has been circulating in the courts, but a final ruling was given by the Supreme Court on July 23rd 2020, more than a year ago. This came after the Constitutional Court forced the Supreme Court to rewrite the sentence, removing the aggravating factor of ideological discrimination. This change meant a considerable reduction in the sentences for the fourteen people convicted: they now range from two years and seven months to two years and nine months in prison, for a simple crime of public disorder.
Election candidates
In the meantime, the Blanquerna attackers have been able to lead normal lives and fully exercise their political rights. In May, two of them ran in the elections for the Madrid Autonomous Community. Manuel Andrino was head of the list for Falange Española y de las JONS in the elections, and Jesús Fernando Fernández Gil, was also on the list for in same party. Their candidacy was endorsed by both the Madrid Electoral Commission as well as Spain's Central Electoral Commission.