Catalan High Court president says amnesty sows 'discord'

The president of the Catalan High Court (TSJC), Jesús María Barrientos, has criticized the future amnesty law, saying it will bring "discord" rather than "pacification." 

Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of new judges in Catalonia on Monday, Barrientos said that "a law that privileges a few over all citizens can never be wielded as an element of pacification, but of discord." This has already been seen in the debates around the law, the judge said. 

Spain's governing Socialists agreed to an amnesty for the Catalan independence movement in return for support from independence parties Junts and Esquerra Republicana to reelect Pedro Sánchez as prime minister. 

The law has faced criticism from the right and far right, but Sánchez defended the constitutionality of the current text of the amnesty bill last week, saying: "as it stands now, the amnesty bill is fully constitutional, it is aligned with the standards of European legislation, and of course it covers all cases involving hundreds of pro-independence leaders and non-leaders in 2017," the year that Catalanonia held an independence referendum deemed illegal by Spain. 

The amnesty bill is expected to become law within a few months, although the exact wording is still being agreed after Junts voted against the law as it stands in Congress on January 30.