'Impunity has never brought unity' – opposition react to sedition reform

Opposition parties in both Catalan and Spanish politics have reacted with skepticism and scorn to the news of the Spanish government reforming the law of sedition. 

The organizers of the 2017 independence referendum who stayed in the country were ultimately convicted of the crime of sedition and were initially given jail sentences of 9-13 years before eventually being pardoned and freed. 

Now, opposition parties criticize the new developments in the Spanish penal code, accusing the Socialists, leading the Spanish executive, of being soft on pro-independence parties. The maximum penalty for the new crime of aggravated public disorder is five years.  

The leader of the People's Party in Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, considers that with the repeal of the crime of sedition, the Spanish government is offering "impunity" to politicians who want to split from Spain. The conservative added that the Spanish government is bending to the "demands" of the pro-independence parties. 

Fernádez views the concept of de-judicializing the conflict between Catalonia and Spain as a "euphemism," and asserted that there was no European comparison or precedent for such a crime reformation. "This is called 'impunity', and impunity has never brought unity nor progress," the PP figurehead said.

The leader of the People's Party in all of Spain, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, criticized the "historic responsibility" and "ingenuity" of Pedro Sánchez. 

Carlos Carrizosa, the leader of Ciudadanos in Catalonia, struck a similar tone, accusing the Socialists of reforming the crime of sedition in exchange for support for the budget bill and an "extension of the legislature." 

In a press conference in the Catalan parliament on Friday, Carrizosa also accused Pedro Sánchez of acting to the "benefit" of his "partners in government," referring to pro-independence Esquerra Republicana, and of creating "a system of impunity for those who want to break Spain." 

Junts: "tailor-made" to say 2017 was a crime

Jordi Turull, the general secretary of Junts per Catalunya, who up until last month were coalition partners of ERC in the Catalan government but now form part of the opposition, said that the reformation of the crime of sedition looks "tailor-made" to say that the independence referendum was a crime. 

Adding the caveat that he still needed to see the official text, Turull told radio station RAC1 that he had seen a report in a news outlet that suggested to him that the wording of the new law will allow authorities "to say that the 2017 referendum was a crime because it speaks about entering public buildings etc, etc."

The JxCat figurehead said he didn't understand how some could "speak about de-judicializing" the Catalonia-Spain conflict, as Catalan president Pere Aragonès and other ERC leaders have, when in Turull's view, "what we're talking about here is reducing the severity of the judicializing [of the conflict], not of de-judicializing it."