Pedro Sánchez’s parliamentary allies are determined to knock down the reform of the Citizen Security Law, better known as the gag law, one of the fundamental purposes signed in the government coalition pact. With this decision, key formations for the stability of the Executive such as ERC and Bildu will cause a new blow to the Government that comes just after the clash caused by the rectification of the law of only yes is yes.
The Catalan independentist republicans and the abertzales have announced their decision to vote against the opinion of the paper in the Interior Commission of Congress. With this refusal, the opinion will not go ahead and given the tight schedule that the legislature has ahead of it, it will be impossible to recover the processing of the reform of the law. Under these conditions, the modification will decay and could only be reactivated in the next legislature.
In a last attempt to save the modification of the law, both formations have presented four compromise amendments that, if approved, would allow them to change their decision and vote in favor of the report’s opinion. These amendments change the section on disobedience, which would be considered a minor offence; the disrespect would only be “insults and insults” and also rubber bullets and hot returns would be effectively prohibited.
It is precisely these points that have caused the clash with the majority partner of the Government: the use of rubber bullets, lack of respect for the police, hot returns and disobedience to authority. The refusal of the Socialists to completely abolish the use of rubber balls as part of the riot gear used by the security forces has been the key trigger for the clash.
The PSOE offered to replace this suppression with the commitment to carry out a study to modernize or prohibit the riot gear. This proposal is clearly insufficient for ERC and Bildu.
In the Interior Commission there will therefore be 17 votes in favor of the opinion of the paper and, consequently, to give the green light to the approval of the reform of the law in the Plenary Session of Congress, and 19 against. In favor of the reform, the PSOE, Unidas Podemos and the PNV will pronounce themselves. The PP, Vox, Ciudadanos, Grupo Mixto, Grupo Plural, ERC and Bildu will vote against.
These last two formations emphasize that they will not be “accomplices” of a ‘light’ Gag law that “does not repeal the most harmful articles” of the Citizen Security law approved under the mandate of Mariano Rajoy and even “keeps its nucleus intact”.
From United We Can, a party that has insistently pressured its senior partner in the Government, the PSOE, to accept the proposals of the allies of the investiture bloc, expresses “concern” about the attitude of the Socialists. They consider that when this reform declines, “one of the greatest political failures of the entire legislature” occurs.
The purples blame the PSOE for having acted intentionally to slow down the repeal of the law by hastening its vote in the Interior Commission when there was not yet a sufficient majority to approve it. Unidas Podemos advocated delaying this process and giving more time to negotiations with investiture allies.
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