Thank you for attending this call to assess the ruling that the Supreme Court has ruled today against the independence politicians who subverted the law now two years ago.
From the Popular Party we have to assess that the ruling of the Supreme Court that we have known today puts an end to an exemplary judicial process, for which the main defendants have been convicted of launching the greatest challenge to our rule of law since the trials after of the coup d'etat of 23 F of 1981.
During the process no political ideas have been judged but serious violations of the Law and public and constitutional order.
The magistrates have established the criminal qualification of facts that undoubtedly tried to put into check, without success, the Spanish Nation and its institutions in the fall of 2017.
Without the rule of law and without separation of powers, there is no democracy. It is the Courts of Justice, therefore, that guarantee the rights and freedoms of all free and equal citizens before the law.
What has been condemned today are behaviors that violated the Constitution, the Statute of Autonomy and the Laws, and that affected the coexistence, prosperity and harmony of Catalonia.
Therefore, today is the time to comply and enforce the sentence. Any call to disobedience, insurrection or recidivism must be answered forcefully by the acting Government of the Nation.
It is the moment of everyone's responsibility. It is time to recover coexistence and harmony. It is time that those who have lived with their backs to the existence of a democratic State and of Law reconnect with reality and with the law. And it is urgent to recover the economy, the return of companies, the neutrality of public space and security and respect for legality and the Constitution in Catalonia.
Therefore, the Popular Party will support all initiatives to guarantee it, also from the acting Government.
Just as it is not for us to assess the sentence, we can remember the circumstances that have surrounded it:
- It was a Government of the Popular Party who initiated the entire procedure that concludes today, with the complaint of the State Attorney General, José Manuel Maza, whom I want to remember today. And it was also the Government of the Popular Party that applied, for the first time in the history of Spain, article 155 to cease the block government of the Generalitat and to dissolve the Parliament of Catalonia.
- The current president of the acting Government, Pedro Sánchez, still is thanks to the votes of the parties that continue to present as candidates for those currently condemned by the Supreme Court. Therefore, we think that he must deny that declaration of Pedralbes and any positioning, or of his party at the national level or of the PSC, in order to slam the forecast of that declaration, regarding the right of self-determination and the attack on the Monarchy Parliamentary, the Judiciary and the state security forces and bodies.
- The current president of the Government in office in recent months, has reached government agreements with the parties whose leaders today have been condemned by the Supreme Court, specifically in 40 municipalities and in the Diputación de Barcelona. Therefore, to be credible in its defense of the rule of law, we believe that it must break all its pacts and government agreements with those that have attempted against the rule of law, as the Supreme Court has ruled today.
- We believe that the President of the Government in office must immediately declare his commitment not to pardon those convicted by the Supreme Court, just as in the last few months requested by one of his ministers, the Government delegate in Catalonia and even the leader of the PSC.
For our part, I want to announce as the main opposition party and as the main alternative of socialist government that we will propose legislation when we reach the Government, to prevent this very serious situation from recurring and even not having to reach the courts:
- We will reform the Law of the pardon to prohibit them in cases of sedition or rebellion, as we registered now more than two years ago in Congress and even when we were in the Government, but we did not obtain a sufficient majority to approve it.
- We will recover the typing of the illegal referendum in the Criminal Code, which was repealed by the Socialist Government of Rodríguez Zapatero in 2005, and that we think would have prevented this issue from reaching the courts, as it did when stopping the Ibarretxe Plan years before.
- We will reform the Criminal Code to recover the crime of improper rebellion that responds to the proclamation of independence without the use of violence, in force until 1995 in its article 217, and that the PSOE modified it that same year by that qualification of a criminal type that contemplated that it was simply for open hostility against public order, and that included the demand for violence, which is what today has based the classification of criminal acts by the criminal type of sedition and not of rebellion .
- We will modify the Criminal Code to introduce full compliance with the sentences for those convicted of rebellion and sedition.
- We will recover the powers in the area of prison administration, which the PSOE transferred in 1983 to Catalonia in order to guarantee compliance with the sentences and that there are no differentiated treatment or discretion for the application of the third degree.
- We will modify the Law on the financing of political parties so that those who have leaders convicted of rebellion or sedition cannot receive public funds that can be used in the cause of Independence.
- We will modify the General Audiovisual Law to avoid propaganda in favor of independence from televisions and public radios with all Spanish taxes.
- We will strengthen the High Educational Inspection, its competences, its means, its templates, to avoid indoctrination in favor of independence in the classroom.
- We will request the modification of the Euroorder procedure so that the delivery of those processed by rebellion or sedition is automatic and is now applied with the fugitives of justice in this process.
We hope that today there is no need to lament any altercation against public order, and that the authorities act with responsibility and firmness if any.
For this, I reiterate again, that the Government has our full support for the measures that preserve the public order of citizens in Catalonia. But, if necessary, we ask you to streamline the instruments to ensure stability in Catalonia, using, if necessary, the following legislation in force:
- The National Security Law to coordinate police forces and bodies, including mossos and urban guards to avoid illegal instructions from the political leadership of the Generalitat.
- The Law on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability to control the accounts of the Generalitat and prevent the embezzlement of public flows in favor of independence. Well, we cannot forget that the current government in office lifted the control measures on the accounts of the Generalitat on June 8, 2018, in exchange for the support of the independentists to the motion of censure.
- In addition, the Foreign Action Law must be activated to immediately close Diplocat and avoid the institutional propaganda of independence abroad after the sentence. Remember that the PSC joined the Diplocat Council on September 20 and that this is more effective even than any type of video or outside campaign.
And finally I want to end with a message of tranquility and confidence to all Spaniards especially those who live in Catalonia: You are not alone, today it has been seen that institutions work, there is no impunity and the law is imposed on those who try to break Your coexistence and prosperity.
Today we remember the Spain of the balconies, that quiet force that was represented by the words of His Majesty the King, who underlined his firm commitment to understanding and harmony and to the unity and permanence of Spain.
Thank you.