Spanish elections and politics II: Catalan elections on February 14, 2021

[Farmlands]

I mean crimes like public funds misuse and corruption are also technically "victimless crimes". Except they are not. The victim in those cases is society as a whole.

This also applies here; the victim in this crime is Spanish society and the state as a whole.

Manifestations in favour of Spanish unity sure can cause high tempers and frissures in society, yet they are lauded by politicians, but God forbid arranging meetings for separatists, now that is surely an unthinkable crime worthy of nine freaking years in prison. From a portuguese very disappointed with its neighbour country.

[Farmlands]

I mean crimes like public funds misuse and corruption are also technically "victimless crimes". Except they are not. The victim in those cases is society as a whole.

This also applies here; the victim in this crime is Spanish society and the state as a whole.

This kind of measure will definitely improve the fulcrum of Spanish society.

Spain is already divided and this ruling is roughly along the lines of what was expected (it was also partially leaked a few days before so it's not a massive surprise). This won't improve things but it certainly isn't making them much worse.

Also, this is probably the "lesser evil" sentence. Let's look at the other 2 main possibilities:

1) The Catalan politicians are found guilty of rebellion. This means even longer prison sentences (25 years) and basically means this would be equivalent to the 1981 coup attempt. The Spanish right would be happy, but Catalonia would be on fire right now (even more so) and the Spanish left would be very split (Podemos against and PSOE probably with a "we disagree but this needs to be respected" opinion I guess).

2) The Catalan politicians are found not guilty of all charges (other than disobedience which technically does not carry a prison sentence). Secessionists would be happy but it's not as if they are suddenly going to stop and become unionists. And of course the Spanish right would be furious and demanding appeals somewhere or changing the criminal code. They probably also get a big boost in the November election.

So, in your view, it's absolutely reasonable for people whose worse crime was setting up reunions get sentenced to 9 years in jail, because keeping the right wingers at bay overweighs human rights (logic which has been used to justify many atrocities throughout history). Calling it a case of messed up priorities would be an understatement.