MADRID—Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday pardoned all nine Catalan separatist leaders jailed for their role in a failed independence bid in the region in 2017, one of whom reacted with defiance to news of his impending release. Sanchez announced the pardons in a televised address. They are conditional and a ban on the leaders holding public office remains in place. They were sentenced in 2019 to between nine and 13 years for crimes of sedition and misuse of public funds, committed in organizing a referendum on breaking away from Spain that authorities in Madrid banned but which led to a unilateral and short-lived declaration of independence. Sanchez has described the pardons, which surveys show that a majority of Spaniards oppose, as a goodwill gesture and a first step towards resolving a bitter political conflict with the wealthy northeastern region, whose government has sought a new referendum on independence under …