The decision has been made and Pedro Sánchez is determined to carry it out with or without the support of Podemos. The reform of the law of only yes is yes has caused the most serious crisis within the Executive. The President of the Government admits the “discrepancies” on this issue, but ignores the criticism that Podemos pours into the PSOE and tries to dismantle the trick that Equality wields to reject the socialist proposal: that raising the penalties by introducing violence as a subtype means returning to the Criminal Code of La Manada with the Popular Party.
“Maintaining consent at the heart of the law is perfectly compatible with resolving a social alarm that has been caused”, was Sánchez’s amendment to the position of Podemos and Equality, from Ljubljana (Slovenia), within the framework of the European mini-tour that this week has taken him to visit Austria, Croatia and Slovenia. For the head of the Executive these two purposes “are not incompatible, they are complementary, that is where the Government and the PSOE are”.
The Socialists defend that their proposal to increase the penalties does not touch the definition of consent because the definition of consent, included in article 178.1 of the Penal Code, is not altered. However, Equality and Podemos argue that the PSOE includes violence and intimidation as a subtype, which is included in sections 2 and 3 of that article 178 and that, therefore, this means changing the meaning of consent, which stops to be in the center as it becomes important whether or not there has been violence and intimidation.
The President of the Government, this Thursday, in an informal conversation with the journalists who are accompanying him on this tour, encompassed Podemos’ attitude in this matter, and in others such as measures for the shopping cart, in a pre-election scenario and with the purpose trying to get visibility. Likewise, he challenged the purples and Equality to make public their proposals to reform the law of only yes is yes. Faced with this challenge, the minister of Irene Montero evaded it.
“The proposal that I want to make public is the proposed agreement, the proposed agreement of the Government and the feminist majority in Congress wants us to reach an agreement and do so before the socialist proposal is debated in plenary session, which unfortunately it returns to the previous criminal scheme. As a government, we cannot allow ourselves a setback in the rights of women at the hands of the PP and Vox”.
Despite the discomfort that exists in La Moncloa and in the PSOE with the criticism expressed from Podemos, Sánchez avoids publicly disavowing the Minister of Equality, although the de facto disavowal is that the PSOE unilaterally registered in Congress its reform proposal before the impossibility of Justice and Equality sealing a pact after two months of negotiations.
The Prime Minister has praised “what he has done and what remains to be done” in the progressive coalition government. He has given as an example the approval this Thursday in Congress of the LGTBI law and the abortion law, but without expressly mentioning Equality, framing the milestone within the Government as a whole.
In this sense, Sánchez has said he feels “proud” of the work of all his ministers when he has been questioned by the Minister for Equality. The President of the Government has found the support of the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob, who has positioned Spanish policy regarding the rights of women and the LGTBI collective as “an example at a European level, perhaps they are not fully aware in Spain” . Golob has congratulated Sánchez for his “courageous attitude and the results obtained”.
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