Nine Catalan separatists pardoned by the Spanish government walked out of prison on Wednesday to the cheers of supporters.
The men left behind them their lengthy terms for organising a bid four years ago to make Catalonia an independent republic.
Spain's Cabinet pardoned them on Tuesday in the hope of starting what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a much-needed reconciliation in the country's restive north-eastern region, although fervent local support for the pardoned separatists indicated the problem would not go away anytime soon.
Former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, five fellow Cabinet members, the former regional parliament's speaker and two pro-independence activists walked free shortly after noon. They had spent between three-and-a-half and four years behind bars.
Spain's official gazette published the government decree pardoning them on Wednesday.
The freed separatists were met by dozens of cheering, clapping supporters and relatives who had gathered in the rain.
The men, released in a group, held up a small banner that said, in English, "Freedom Catalonia", as well as a Catalan flag. They addressed their supporters in the Catalan language.
"We are aware that today, with our release from prison, nothing has ended," Mr Junqueras told supporters in a defiant speech.
"Prison does not scare us, it reinforces our ideas."
The Catalan regional president, Pere Aragones, and the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Laura Borras, also went to prison for the separatists' release.
The pardon cancelled the remainder of prison terms ranging from nine to 13 years over sedition and misuse of public funds linked to the 2017 banned referendum and a short-lived Catalonia independence declaration.
But the separatists will not be able to hold public office until the end of their sentences and they could go back to prison if they break Spanish law again, the decree said.
Despite polls showing that many people in Spain were against the pardons, Mr Sanchez has defended them, arguing that they are popular in Catalonia and that freeing the separatists will be a fresh start for relations between central and regional authorities.
The prime minister's office announced on Wednesday that Mr Sanchez and Mr Aragones will meet in Madrid on June 29, exactly one week after the pardons, in their first encounter since the latter became Catalonia's regional chief earlier this year.
The political divisions were on full display on Wednesday at the nation's parliament, with Conservative opposition leader Pablo Casado calling for the prime minister's resignation for issuing the pardons without consulting politicians.
"You are applauding an unfortunate day for Spain's democratic history, you are throwing the fate of the country into the hands of the separatists," Mr Casado said, accusing Mr Sanchez of lying because the Socialist leader had vowed not to make concessions to separatists when he came to power.
Mr Sanchez responded saying the decision to issue pardons was "brave, restorative and in favour of coexistence".
Catalan separatist legislators called for the government to take a step further and urged it to follow the "Scottish way" - in reference to Scotland's 2014 independence referendum that was authorised by the British government.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel