United We Can takes its challenge to the PSOE to the end and presents amendments to dismantle the reform of the law of only yes is yes that the socialists unilaterally raised with the aim of correcting the imposition of lower sentences in sexual assaults. The change to this norm, which is currently being processed in Congress, opened on the eve of 8-M one of the most serious crises within the coalition due to the escalation of the confrontation between the partners of the Government, with reproaches and tension over the way to deal with the situation. Finally, and given the impossibility of reaching an agreement, Pedro Sánchez ordered to go forward and act alone to fix the star law of the Ministry of Equality despite the frontal opposition of the minority sector of the Executive.
In the absence of making the content of her amendments known, the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, has advanced in an interview on TVE that her counterproposal is in the “same line” as the one registered last week by ERC and EH Bildu. Thus, she has indicated that she reinforces violence as “aggravating circumstances” instead of, as the PSOE proposed, that it was a key factor in determining the threshold between the highest and lowest sentences.
“For the majority of the investiture to follow the same line would have to make the PSOE reflect and make an agreement possible with the feminist majority that supports this government,” Montero said.
The Minister for Equality has recognized that in Unidas Podemos they have been acting in a “coordinated” manner with ERC and EH Bildu for months but has defended that the proposals be made separately “from the autonomy of each organization”. In any case, she has stressed that the key to the amendments is that “consent” remains at the “center” of the Penal Code.
Regarding the change proposed by the PSOE, Montero has assured that it is “impossible” to believe that a reform agreed between the PSOE and the PP “is feminist” because, he has remarked, the proposed change does not serve to improve the law of only yes is yes but to “roll back on women’s rights.” What’s more, for Montero the PP only seeks to “put an end to one of the most important advances of that law” in a sort of “amendment to the entirety.”
Although there have been no real negotiations between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos on the change in the law for a long time, Montero has asked the PSOE to “think” about what it is doing and that instead of agreeing with the PP a “regression” that ” remove consent from the center of the Penal Code” seek an agreement with the “feminist majority” in Congress.
On the other hand, in statements to the media, the Government delegate against Gender Violence, Victoria Rosell, has stressed that it is “very important” that with the amendments of the parliamentary group of United We Can “see” that there were “other technical options ” to “improve enforcement” of the Sexual Freedom Act without “rolling back” or “undoing” the “consent system.”
Rosell explained that his proposals to reinforce violence and intimidation as aggravating factors offer that “balance” and give “more legal certainty” to women. In this way, they suppose more pain but it does not determine “if there is sexual assault”. She has detailed that the “technical differences” with that of the PSOE “are not of great depth” but she has remarked that where violence and intimidation is introduced “has a lot of impact on the system.”
The proposal prepared by the Ministry of Equality and registered by Unidas Podemos will not mean the end of the sentence reviews. The same thing that happens with the PSOE. That no longer has a solution, as Rosell has acknowledged, because more beneficial legislation for the convicted person has been in force. The “only remedy” to try to stop these drops are the “resources” before what Equality considers an “improper” application of the law.
The bill to change the only yes is yes law that he presented to the PSOE was admitted for processing on March 7 with 231 votes in favor, compared to 56 against and 58 abstentions. In addition to the Socialists, the PP, PNV, UPN, Foro, Ciudadanos, Teruel Existe, PRC, Coalición Canaria and PDeCat voted in favour. Instead, they rejected the text United We Can, ERC, Junts, EH Bildu, the CUP and the BNG. For their part, Vox, Más País and Compromís abstained.
The plan of the Socialists is to hit an acceleration in the next few days so that the change of the law is approved in commission this Thursday and, later, voted in the plenary session of Congress on April 20. The idea is that before the end of the month the text is ratified in the Senate. At the gates of the regional and municipal election campaign.
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