Pedro Sánchez denies that the pardon for the former president of the Catalan Parliament, Laura Borrás, is linked to the budget negotiation or a political exchange. “It has absolutely nothing to do with it,” the Prime Minister concluded in his appearance after meeting with King Felipe VI in Mallorca.
Read more Guardiola and Vox approve the first budgets of the legislature and confirm their current harmony
The Prime Minister has relied on the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) to defend the pardon approved by the Council of Ministers this week. According to him, the ruling “established that the prison sentence was excessive” and his government has limited itself to “complying with the ruling” and the “opinion of the TSJC” which, he added, upheld the embezzlement but considered “that the prison sentence was excessive”.
In his appearance, and despite being directly questioned about it, he did not want to comment on the indictment, made public this Wednesday, of the former director of the Civil Guard under his mandate, Leonardo Marcos. “Presumption of innocence and we will see where this judicial case leads,” said the socialist leader.
During his meeting with the King, Sánchez addressed the situation of the severe fires ravaging the country. He said that this issue took up “a good part” of the meeting, and that he will ask the European Commission to create in Mallorca a coordination center to fight fires in the Western Mediterranean, similar to the one located in Cyprus. Likewise, he asked citizens to take extreme precautions against the new heat wave and reiterated that he calls for a state pact against the climate emergency.
The meeting between the head of government and the head of state is one of the key dates of the summer and marks the end of the political term, preceding the president’s vacation. The King usually receives the head of the Executive at his summer palace. Normally at Marivent, the residence of the Kings in Mallorca, a public heritage funded by the Balearic Government.
Only on two occasions in the last decade has the meeting been held at La Almudaina, the historic medieval palace of the Kings of Mallorca. This year the palace premises have been renovated, which is why it was finally decided that the meeting between Sánchez and Felipe VI would be held there.
The meeting started around 6:42 p.m., ten minutes late. Normally, when the monarch receives local politicians from the Balearic Islands in this setting, the authorities wait for him in the palace hall, under the imposing tapestries. However, in Sánchez’s case, both came out at the same time to pose in front of the media.
