ANTONIO Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, has said the pardons given to Catalan independence leaders could pave the way to dialogue with Spain.

He was sharing a platform with Pedro Sanchez after they met yesterday, days after the Spanish prime minister told Catalan President Pere Aragones there would be no new referendum on self-determination.

“The creation of conditions to allow dialogue to prosper is always very important for our societies,” said Guterres, although he had initially appeared reluctant to comment on the pardons, describing them as Spain’s “internal political matters”.

However, he added that there is “an essential global principle … all problems must be solved through politics, and dialogue is an essential tool to solve the problems of our time”.

The UN chief did not reply when asked if Catalonia had the right to self-determination, but Sanchez insisted: “Anything that fosters divisions among citizens and forces them to define their identities one way or another, that's what we want to leave behind.”

“The formula is dialogue within democratic legality and reaching an agreement.”

Jordi Cuixart, one of those pardoned, repeated his call for the UN to press Spain for an amnesty for all those criminalised over the 2017 independence referendum.

He said that despite the pardons, Spanish repression was not over, and warned that hundreds of ordinary people who had taken part in peaceful protests linked to the referendum, still faced legal action from the state.

The president of grassroots group Omnium Cultural, Cuixart urged the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Peaceful Assembly, Clement Voulé, to push Spain for “a legal amnesty process” for all those involved.

He said: “I ask you to make Spain fulfil its international commitments… if political repression is allowed in a democratic state like Spain, authoritarian countries will feel legitimised in their anti-democratic practices.

“We, civil society, will never stop protesting. Defending human rights in Barcelona is also doing it in Hong Kong, Bogota or Cairo. That is why we will do it again.”

Meanwhile, 34 former Catalan government officials, facing €5.4 million (£4.6m) costs for promoting Catalan independence abroad, have less than two weeks to pay before their homes and other properties are seized.

One of them is Albert Royo, former general secretary of Diplocat, which promoted Catalan interests abroad, who said: “I am just amazed at the inability to react. Forty-eight hours have passed.

"I can speak on behalf of all those affected when I say that we should expect a robust and determined response from both the institutions and the Solidarity Fund [for an earlier referendum]. We hope that this will happen in the coming days.”