amnesty A word with the smell of mothballs once again runs through Catalan and Spanish politics and the media. And somewhere else? ERC and Junts, with variants, claim it to support the investiture of the socialist candidate, Pedro Sánchez. They want the acts of political intent classified as crimes or administrative offenses linked to the struggle for self-determination in Catalonia since 2013 to be amnestied. Its voters must be assumed to see it well. The rest is unclear.
The independence movement represented by the Catalan National Assembly, critical of ERC and Junts, fears that the amnesty will act as a demobiliser. Its president, Dolors Feliu, assured La Vanguardia a few days ago that it could be “including a trap” and that it could deactivate the lawsuits before the European Court of Human Rights. None of the slogans of the columns called for today’s demonstration – “Freedom, Language, Country, Sovereignty” – does not claim it.
The CUP, for its part, maintains that “an amnesty without self-determination will be little more than pardons 2.0”. The management of Sumar has committed to finding ways to make it feasible. It is not known if the 1.2 million Catalans who voted for the PSC on 23-J are in favor of it, apart from assuming that this is one of the transactions for Sánchez to pave the way for a right-wing government with the far right PP and Vox are against it.
When the events of the Day are concluded, we will know if the amnesty was one of the demands of the day in the street or if it is seen as something of offices. Almost half a century ago, it was. On February 1, 1976, the great Catalan platform of anti-Francoism, the Assembly of Catalonia, promoted a demonstration to demand amnesty for the more than six hundred political prisoners of the Franco regime. The dictator had died the previous November. Salvador Sánchez-Terán, civil governor of Barcelona, ??banned it. The entity that formally convened it, the Federation of Associations of Residents of Barcelona, ??claimed little room to cancel it.
At eleven in the morning, the police were already waiting for the demonstrators at the starting point, the current Passeig Lluís Companys. The charges against those gathered and those heading there prevented them from being able to take the planned route, through the Ronda Sant Pere to Plaça Catalunya. Between five thousand and twelve thousand people, according to the sources, regrouped at the intersection of Passeig de Sant Joan with Travessera de Gràcia. As they advanced along Calle Rosselló, the police blocked their way. The participants sat on the ground, but the charges were repeated until the demonstration was dissolved.
A week later, the anti-Francoists returned. On February 8, another demonstration was called in Ciutadella Park. Since the police prevented it again, the participants advanced in several columns to concentrate in various parts of the city, such as the Sant Antoni market and the Sagrada Família, Letamendi or Virrei Amat squares. The civilian governor brought out almost more police than there were protesters on the street to ensure an effective crackdown.
These two actions constituted the largest act of protest against the dictatorship since the tram strike of 1951 and acted as a repulsive and awareness-raising element for many. The underground press echoed it. The foreigner, too. Historians David Ballester and Manel Risques support Temps d’amnistia. The demonstrations of February 1 and 8, 1976 in Barcelona (2011) that the number of people who demonstrated surprised the organizers themselves.
In July, induced by the Pax Christi organization – with leaders such as the imprisoned Lluís Maria Xirinacs, Arcadi Oliveres and Àngel Colom – the Freedom March began. A series of columns that toured different parts of the Catalan Countries to claim amnesty, freedoms and the Statute. Manuel Fraga, Minister of Government, banned them and there were numerous arrests, as picked up by Josep Calvet and Oriol Luján in Poble català, put t’a walker. 40 years of the Freedom March (2016).
On July 30, 1976, the government of Adolfo Suárez, with less than a month as president of Spain, approved a partial amnesty for some political prisoners. Anti-Francoist pressure was having an effect. Without these previous actions, it is not possible to understand that the Day of 1976 brought together nearly one hundred thousand people under the motto “Freedom, amnesty and Statute of Autonomy”. The agreement between the Assembly of Catalonia, the Council of Political Forces, the non-aligned forces and the civilian governor allowed the commemoration for the first time since the end of the Civil War. In Sant Boi de Llobregat, because the Suárez government and Sánchez-Terán himself, who would soon be a key man for the restoration of the Generalitat, did not allow it in Barcelona. They were afraid
A year later, on October 15, 1977, the Courts, unanimously – except for the abstention of the Popular Alliance – approved the Amnesty law for political prisoners and a wide spectrum of crimes, but also for the authorities, officials and law enforcement officers even if they had violated people’s rights. The latter prevented the purge of the security forces and many considered it a goal to the demands of anti-Francoism.
At the time of putting his reformist project on track and proposing the legalization of political parties, the democratization of Spain and an amnesty as “broadest as possible”, Suárez had expressed that it was “elevating to the political category of normal which at street level is simply normal”. Perhaps this evening we will know if the amnesty that independence demands is now also true.
