The Backlash Begins: Sanchez Is A “Traitor” Say Opposition Parties

The backlash against President Pedro Sanchez’s announcement today that 12 Catalan separatists will be pardoned tomorrow by cabinet ministers has begun with accusations that he has sold out Spain and that he is a “traitor”.

THE decision was announced by the President in Barcelona and was quickly denounced by the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and Vox.

All three parties said they will appeal against the pardons, but the rules of the Supreme Court could prevent them from doing so and an appeal lodged to the Attorney General’s Office is also unlikely to succeed.

“This is handing Spain over to the nationalists,” said the leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, on June 21.

“The PSOE, Podemos and the nationalists are not trying to make a government, they are trying to make the regime they want without space for an alternative with an induced crisis created by the left and the separatists on the political and institutional system itself,” he added.

The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, accused Sanchez of undertaking measures that “weaken unity by pardoning coup plotters, trampling on the Constitution, and even more seriously, betraying Spain.”

By early afternoon the hashtag #TRAIDOR (traitor) was trending on Spanish Twitter.

The President of Catalonia, Pere Aragones, has also called the pardons “insufficient” and has demanded a referendum on Catalonia’s independence.

“This decision is a first step that must be followed by a negotiation between the two governments at this dialogue table,” Aragones said.

Any talks would have to include “amnesty and self-determination, freedom for all the prisoners, the free return of the exiles and a referendum to decide on the political future and the independence of Catalonia,” he added.

Following the approval by cabinet scheduled for June 22, the pardons must be published in the BOE before they can take effect. That could happen as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. Once published in the BOE, opposition parties say they will begin their backlash in parliament.

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