"What the President of the Government is clear about is that this has to come out," reveals a socialist minister about the absolute determination of Pedro Sánchez to get the reform of the law of only yes is yes approved last Monday, in alone and with the frontal opposition of Podemos, to try to prevent future reductions in sentences for sexual offenders.
Sánchez is therefore willing to explore all the ways to obtain the necessary parliamentary support so that the PSOE bill sees the light of day as soon as possible. And although the Socialists assure that they will prioritize negotiations with the groups of the investiture bloc, they admit that they do not exclude the Popular Party either. "The important thing is what, which is to carry out the reform, not with whom," acknowledges another PSOE minister.
Faced with the "castle" positions, as they describe them, of the Podemos ministers, Irene Montero and Ione Belarra, but also with the misgivings already expressed by some of the groups of the investiture bloc regarding the PSOE reform, the Socialists thus modulate his initial rejection of having to depend on the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo in order to save his bill.
"We will not negotiate with the PP because it does not want this law, that it does not tell us stories," the PSOE spokesman in Congress, Patxi López, ruled out last Monday, once the bill was registered. "With the PP we have nothing to negotiate, we will talk to everyone else," he settled. Socialist government sources qualified yesterday, however, the words of Patxi López: “With the PP we have said that we are not going to negotiate the content of the law, not that we are not going to dialogue or that we reject their votes. Support or votes are not rejected. And they insisted that the important thing is what, not with whom.
And that Sánchez himself held a verbal duel yesterday on the matter with the PP spokesperson, Cuca Gamarra, during the government control session in Congress. "I show my face, and when there is a problem I strive to solve it," defended the chief executive against the attacks by Gamarra, who blamed him for the fact that 415 sex offenders have already seen their sentences reduced, and another 40 have been released from prison. entry into force of the law of only yes is yes. "And what remains," lamented the PP spokeswoman. "I am in the habit of showing my face and assuming responsibility for the actions of my government, when we are right and when we are not right," insisted Sánchez, who denounced that in the PP, on the other hand, "throw the stone and hide the hand." "Apologise, rectify and let the PP help you," Gamarra summoned Sánchez, whose non-verbal language showed his discomfort at this controversy and a clash in the coalition that significantly weakens and wears down the Government.
PSOE ministers admit Sánchez's serious disgust with this situation, which also overshadows his speech on the Executive's economic and social achievements.
For now, socialist sources confirm that, after the public exchange of reproaches between the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, and the head of Equality, Irene Montero, the conversations between the two have been interrupted. Also, because the PSOE made the decision to present a reform against one of the star laws of Podemos without its partner. Now, on behalf of the PSOE, it is the ministers Félix Bolaños and María Jesús Montero who are in charge of redirecting the crisis and leading the "political negotiation" with the parliamentary groups to save the reform of the law of only yes is yes. Vice President Yolanda Díaz also participates in the negotiation. But the ordeal of the law of only yes is yes, if it is not resolved urgently, it already threatens to poison the next celebration of March 8, Women's Day, and once again fracture the feminist movement, as It happened with the trans law.
In any case, United We Can is waiting. The unilateral start of the PSOE with its own reform of the law puts the ball in its court. It is the Socialists who now have to win support for their contested initiative in the chamber. Starting with your partner. If they do not succeed, there will be no tears in Podemos. And if they agree with the PP, the vote against the confederate group cannot be ruled out. The image can be tremendous, they comment: the PSOE joining the PP to disfigure a law from a Podemos ministry.
