Pedro Sánchez defends the pardons for those sentenced due to the 'procés' to re-establish coexistence and harmony

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

They are partial pardons that commute pending prison sentences while maintaining the ineligibility to hold public office, and are conditioned on not committing a serious crime for a specified period of time.

The Executive, Sánchez stated, has considered there to be reasons of public interest in this grace measure, specifically "the need to re-establish coexistence and harmony within Catalan society and in Spanish society as a whole", in accordance with the spirit of the Spanish Constitution.

The president pointed out that the aim of the government's decision is to open a new period of dialogue and to build bridges between people who are very distant politically, but who cannot ignore each other because, he stressed, "Spain without Catalonia would simply not be Spain, just as Catalonia without the rest of Spain would not be Catalonia".

The Government, he assured, works and will continue to work towards understanding and never confrontation, and he invited them to turn the page to concentrate all their effort "on improving the lives of our people, in these times of difficulties and of many hopes".

Non official translation