Nine Catalan separatists pardoned by the Spanish government walked out of prison yesterday to the cheers of supporters. The men were  serving lengthy terms for organising a bid to make Catalonia an independent republic.

Spain’s Cabinet pardoned them on Tuesday in the hope of starting what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a much-needed reconciliation in the country’s restive north-eastern region.

Former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, five fellow Cabinet members, the former regional parliament’s speaker and two pro-independence activists walked free shortly after noon. They had spent between three-and-a-half and four years in prison.

Spain’s official gazette published the government decree pardoning them yesterday.

The freed separatists were met by dozens of cheering supporters and relatives. The freed men held up a small banner that said, in English, “Freedom Catalonia”. They addressed supporters in the Catalan language.

“We are aware that today, with our release, nothing has ended,” Mr Junqueras told supporters. “Prison does not scare us, it reinforces our ideas.”

The Catalan regional president, Pere Aragones, and the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Laura Borras, were present for the separatists’ release.

The pardon cancelled the remainder of prison terms ranging from nine to 13 years over sedition and misuse of public funds linked to the 2017 banned referendum and a short-lived Catalonia independence declaration.

The separatists will not be able to hold public office until the end of their sentences and they could go back to prison if they break Spanish law again.

Despite polls showing that many in Spain were against the pardons, Mr Sanchez has defended them, arguing that they are popular in Catalonia and that freeing the separatists will be a fresh start for relations between central and regional authorities.

The prime minister’s office announced yesterday that Mr Sanchez and Mr Aragones will meet in Madrid next Tuesday, in their first encounter since the latter became Catalonia’s regional chief earlier this year.

The political divisions were on full display yesterday at the nation’s parliament, with Conservative opposition leader Pablo Casado calling for the prime minister’s resignation for issuing the pardons without consulting politicians.