The spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, Verónica Martínez Barbero, has pointed out that her party respects the Government's decision to grant partial pardon to the former president of Junts, Laura Borrás, since the sentence for the crimes for which she was judged remains in force, although her imprisonment is forgiven.
In this regard, she emphasized that the position of the minority partner of the Executive, in favor of vetoing pardons in cases of corruption, remains intact and that the approved measure is limited, given that there is "an abyssal difference between an absolute pardon of a sentence and a pardon relative to the prison sentence."
In statements to "La Sexta," collected by Europa Press, and when asked if Sumar feels comfortable with this pardon, the parliamentary spokesperson explained that they respect the Government's decision, just as they maintain their "political distance and criticism regarding the criminal situation that occurred."
The also coordinator of Movimiento Sumar has emphasized that "the partial pardon is true that legally does not entail an exemption from the sentence, it simply means that one does not enter prison but all the other penalties that had been imposed remain," to further emphasize that, in this case, the grace measure was proposed by the very court that issued the sentence.
The crime is not forgiven, only part of the sentence
In response to the question of whether this decision of the Executive clashes with Sumar's line, which proposes eliminating pardons in corruption crimes, Martínez Barbero reiterated that their position remains the same and that there is a substantial difference between a total pardon and a limited one like the one applied to Borrás.
She recalled that "we have never been in favor of pardoning corruption crimes. This lady is not being pardoned. We are exclusively talking about a part of the sentence and that is why it is called a partial pardon (...) it is of a part of the sentence, which is the entry into prison, but not of the crime committed. That person remains convicted of that crime."
To conclude, she emphasized that Sumar continues to reject pardons in cases of corruption and that those who have been convicted must continue to be so. At the same time, she indicated that she must maintain a "scrupulous silence" regarding the internal deliberations of the Council of Ministers when asked whether Sumar raised any objections to the granting of this partial grace measure to the former leader of Junts.