The Government wants to give visibility to the trial of the 'procés'

The Executive seeks to emphasize abroad that the procedure will be fair, despite the complaints of the independence movement.

Pedro Sánchez will visit the European Court of Human Rights in February, when the oral hearing begins at the Supreme Court



 The Moncloa considers that the independentisy strategy of appealing to the international community to resolve the conflict in Catalonia has failed and that the separatists will not achieve the international support that they hope for with the judgment of the 'procés', which will begin between the end of January and the beginning of February. Faced with the protests of the secessionist world, which says it is convinced that the procedure will not be fair, the Government says to be calm and is willing to even give visibility to show that the process is carried out with all the guarantees of a rule of law .

Executive sources have explained to EL PERIODICO that, far from trying to tip over the process to be instructed by the Supreme Court (TS), the intention is to act with full transparency so that there is not the slightest shadow of doubt about the impartiality of the Supreme Court. process, especially when the independent world ensures that the sentence is already written and threatens to appeal first to the Constitutional Court (TC) and, ultimately, take it to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The circumstance occurs that the president of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, is planning to visit the seat of this court, in Strasbourg, on February 7. The intention of the Executive is to carry out an "exchange of opinions" there, to talk about the latest sentences condemning Spain (such as the one that concludes that Arnaldo Otegi did not have a fair trial) and to demonstrate a firm defense of human rights.

Sánchez will be the first head of the Spanish Government to visit the ECHR. Although his trip will take place on the same dates as the oral hearing against the independence leaders, the Moncloa dissociates any intentionality in this coincidence. He assures that he does not act to cushion the protests of the independentists, who have asked the European Parliament to send international observers. The Basque Chamber has also approved sending a delegation to be present at the oral hearing.

"Marginal protest" 

According to sources close to the president, the feeling is that it is very clear for the international community that the government is doing everything it can to channel the conflict with Catalonia and that the Catalan parties should sponsor a proposal to guarantee coexistence in a fractured society between those who advocate independence and those who do not.

The answer that the Executive has of the international community makes him conclude that all the independentist strategy to start an external mediation collapses like a house of cards. The Government maintains that the countries have stopped asking about the conflict in Catalonia, something that they see as "marginal" and, in any case, of internal order. They believe, in short, that the multiple appeals to the implication of the European Union (EU) of the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, and his predecessor in the charge, Carles Puigdemont, have been shipwrecked.

"Two blows" 

"They have taken two blows," they argue: neither the European states have aligned themselves with the independentist movement, nor has Catalonia managed to attract companies from all over the world and become a sort of California. For the Moncloa, Torra's requests for diplomacy have only led to a feeling of "satiety" towards the Catalan question.

The Government considers that, although the trial of 'procés' will be translated into new protests in the streets, the international community will not change its view of the conflict and concludes that it will not return to a scenario similar to that of after 1-O , when the opinion abroad was touched by the police charges because of the enormous media impact that the images had.

 As an example of the change of perception abroad, sources of the Moncloa remember the Slovenian incident. The Prime Minister, Marjan Sarec, apologized to Sanchez after the president of the country received Torra, a trip that gave rise to the polemic of the Slovenian way. According to the same sources, Sarec acknowledged the Prime Minister who was "very angry" about the incident and reminded him that he himself had transmitted the order that no one from the Executive should receive him.

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20181230/gobierno-juicio-proces-justo-7222845