BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s government has granted pardons to nine instigators of an illegal 2017 secession bid for Catalonia. The move on Tuesday is an attempt to defuse the festering political crisis in the nation’s affluent northeast. The decision by the left-wing government is controversial. Even some of Catalonia’s most fervent separatists say the pardons don’t go far enough. But it is supported by a large number of Catalans on both sides of the secession question who want to move forward. The beneficiaries include former Cabinet members and two grassroots activists. The act of grace does not extend to former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont after he fled to Belgium.
