One of the great legends of the world of football has been Bill Shankly, who was a Liverpool player and coach, and who was as good with the ball as he was with words. Among the phrases that have remained for history is this one: “The problem with referees is that they know the rules, but not the game”. I remembered it reading the nine-page document by Vicente Guilarte, president of the General Council of the Judiciary, in which he justifies his abstention in the plenary session that addressed the legality of the amnesty, when he had two opposing reports on the table : one in favor of the law, drafted by member Mar Cabrejas, from the progressive sector, and another against, contributed by Wenceslao Olea, member of the conservative sector.
Guilarte, who is interim president, is one of those referees who not only knows the rules, but also the game, as he has abstained, giving the right to the right, who is the one who promoted him.
Guilarte’s abstention is sending pigeons flying. What does the acting president of the CGPJ say? Well, unlike all known amnesty laws, this is a measure of grace that contains political counterparts, it denies that amnesty can be a bargaining chip to achieve a parliamentary majority and rejects that the rule has in order to achieve political pacification and coexistence in Catalonia.
But the most unique thing is when the magistrate develops a moral parable, and compares the granting of amnesty with the donation of a kidney: “You can give a kidney for free, but not in exchange for a price. In the same way, it would not be understood to pardon, let alone amnesty, in exchange for an onerous benefit”.
It will be difficult for the amnesty to go ahead, although it will surely prevail in the end. But things have not gone well, since there has been no pedagogy on the part of the Spanish Government, nor has independence wanted to moderate the discourse. Guilarte’s neutrality is that of the referee who knows both the rules and the game. What is not understood is his abstention, when it comes to a frontal and relentless attack against the amnesty. Or maybe it is.
