As Pedro Sánchez announced last night, the parliamentary groups of the PSOE and United We Can have registered this Friday in Congress a proposal for an organic law that will eliminate the crime of sedition from the Penal Code, and will transform it into another of aggravated public disorder. As confirmed by the spokesman for the socialist parliamentary group, Patxi López, the new penal typology will contemplate sentences of between 3 and 5 years in prison and special disqualification for the use of public office. In the event that the crime is committed by public authorities, the disqualification will be absolute and for a period of 6 to 8 years. The maximum prison sentences and disqualification for the crime of sedition, for which the pro-independence leaders were convicted, are now raised to 15 years.
Patxi López has pointed out that the reform of the Criminal Code will allow "clarification" of criminal types, after the "enormous debate among jurists" that began after the independence challenge in Catalonia in 2017. The socialist leader has argued that, in addition, by not If the crime of sedition exists in the countries of the European environment, judicial collaboration “was not possible, because it required a comparable type of crime that did not exist”. “That prevented, among other things, the extraditions, because the double criminality requirement that is demanded in the European extradition orders was not met.” “With this reform, that will not happen again. There will no longer be sanctuaries for attacks against public order, ”he warned.
The socialist parliamentary spokesman has assumed that the right will launch a harsh offensive against this initiative, with the accusation of treason against Spain. “To those who accuse us of selling out to the independentists, for a common sense issue, which will also help our judges to apply justice correctly, simply tell them that Catalonia is infinitely better today than in the 2017, that now the Generalitat commits in writing to comply with the legal legal system and that the solutions are broad and transversal for the entire Catalan society", assured Patxi López, referring to the latest agreements of the dialogue table last month of July.
“Now the majority of Catalans want to continue in Spain, and not leave it as happened before. Now there is no unity of independentist action. Now the pro-independence victimhood has disappeared, which is what most unites them. And, most importantly, now coexistence in Catalonia is not fractured”, highlighted the socialist spokesman.
Given the possible electoral cost that this initiative may have for the PSOE, Patxi López has assured that they will always put "coexistence" in Spain above the interest of its initials. “Even if it costs us votes”, he has assumed. "The progressive government of the PSOE makes decisions and does politics regardless of the electoral cost," he stressed. But he has also stuck his chest out against the offensive that the right is already deploying: "Let Feijóo make no more mistakes, this is the PSOE of always." To avoid the possible electoral bill of this project, six months before the municipal and regional elections, the PSOE leadership argues: "Today who questions the effects of the pardons or the dialogue table?" With each of these initiatives, step by step, the Socialists consider that they are "dismantling" the political conflict in Catalonia.
Patxi López, in any case, has trusted that the socialist voter, in territories such as Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura or Aragón, understands this legislative reform. "If we are able to convey why we are reforming the Penal Code at this time, the citizenry and the socialist voter will perfectly understand what we are doing, why we are doing it and what the results of what we are doing are from minute one," has argued. “Are we the traitors? The one that has surely done the most for the unity of this country, and for coexistence in this country, has been this Government. And I am convinced that our voters will understand it perfectly, ”he has settled.
The forecast in the socialist group is that, since it is a bill -which does not require the mandatory reports of the advisory bodies that it would require if it were a government bill-, the reform may be approved "in the next few months". Before, in any case, the municipal and regional elections of May 2023.
