The sedition reform announced last week by the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, continues to generate debate. The Catalan president-in-exile, Carles Puigdemont, warned this Monday on Twitter about a possible interpretation of the new law on aggravated public disorder (intended to replace the old crime of sedition) that will always tend to be unfavourable to Catalan independence supporters. Puigdemont believes that, in the hands of the Spanish judges, there will be the option of using a part of the new law that he considers a "wild card": an act of "intimidation", which is defined in the new text as sufficient to create an offence of aggravated public disorder, and is considered excessively imprecise and ambiguous by critics.
Carles Puigdemont has issued a warning to those who "have not learned anything from these last five years", that is, supporters of Catalan independence who are confident that Spanish judges will "renounce the use of the wild card of 'intimidation'" when they have a pro-independence Catalan sitting in the dock.
És d'això del que hem de parlar i sobre el que caldrà fer aclariments. Si les coses poden anar per aquí no tinc cap dubte de quina serà l'opció dels jutges espanyols. Si algú creu que renunciaran al comodí de la "intimidació" és que no ha après res d'aquests darrers cinc anys. https://t.co/RBj6nb512t
— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) November 14, 2022
Puigdemont's tweet is a reaction to another tweet, in this case by the CUP deputy in Congress, Albert Botran, in which he comments on the news this Monday about the first person convicted from the Democratic Tsunami protest on October 14th, 2019, a university student from Lleida who took part in the events at Barcelona airport and will only avoid prison because the penalties for the two crimes for which he has been convicted do not add up to two years separately. Botran points out: "He won't go to prison because neither of the two sentences separately (disorder + assault against a police officer) is 2 years or more. With the new crime of aggravated disorder, should the judge see 'violence or intimidation', the minimum sentence would be 3 years and he would go to jail".
Puigdemont's warning on sedition reform
Puigdemont responds to Botran's message, and takes the opportunity to give his warning: "This is what we have to talk about and what we need to clarify. If things can go this way I have no doubt what the choice of the Spanish judges will be. Anyone who thinks that they will give up the wild card of "intimidation" has not learned anything from these last five years".
The president-in-exile had previously published another message on social media in which he highlighted the little trust he places in the legal reform announced in the Spanish state: "Until a law is passed with a single article that says "'A por ellos' is abolished", it is clear that we will never advance. Every step forward (for the few) will mean two steps back (for the many)”. The phrase "A por ellos" means "Let's go get 'em" and was famously sung by Civil Guards en route to Catalonia to repress the referendum in 2017. Today, Puigdemont made his comment in response to the decision of the Spanish Socialists not to permit the use of Catalan in the Senate.