The repeal of sedition has a loose majority and the possibility of quick approval

The PSOE has been saying for months that it does not have a sufficient majority to face a reform of the Penal Code that adjusts the crime of sedition to European standards, but it has been announced by the president, Pedro Sánchez, and —as several of his partners had repeatedly argued— form a loose majority for approval.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
11 November 2022 Friday 15:30
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The repeal of sedition has a loose majority and the possibility of quick approval

The PSOE has been saying for months that it does not have a sufficient majority to face a reform of the Penal Code that adjusts the crime of sedition to European standards, but it has been announced by the president, Pedro Sánchez, and —as several of his partners had repeatedly argued— form a loose majority for approval. With the prudence of not yet having read the PSOE and United We Can bill but with the unequivocal will to support the measure, in a few hours, ERC, PNV, Eh-Bildu and PDECat spoke in favorable terms. The so-called majority of the investiture, as it had always stated, is for the job.

Except for surprises in the adjustments of the amendments, the coalition partners do not see parliamentary problems to support the Government's initiative and carry out the repeal of a criminal type from the 19th century that survived in Spanish law and whose reform was suggested by the Supreme Court itself during the trial of the Catalan leaders instigators of the procés. Without guaranteeing the vote, both the ERC and the PNV, EH-Bildu and the PDEcat have sided with the coalition government and have applauded the initiative. It is much more than the legislative proposals of the executive usually achieve when they are announced.

The recourse to the bill proposal (PL), that is to say, to the parliamentary initiative of the groups that support the government for a reform of the criminal code that everyone assumed would take the form of a government bill, is a audacity with which the executive wants to shorten the bad drink.

That the initiative arises from the parliamentary groups and not from the Council of Ministers simplifies the process and could allow the criminal code reform to come into force before the end of the year, or in the early stages of 2023.

The bill must be qualified by the Congress table —next Monday, November 14— and then approved by the Board of Spokespersons. This procedure usually takes place in successive weeks, but there are also precedents in which the Board of Spokespersons, which usually meets a few hours after the Table, processes a matter on the same day it has been qualified.

If so, then it could enter the next plenary session, so that the chamber gave its approval to its processing. Next week there is no plenary session, so that, at the earliest, it could enter the one on November 22, which is the one that will debate the budgets. If the coalition understood that mixing both debates is uncomfortable, the vote on the bill would be left for the plenary session the following week, on November 29.

Once the initiative is approved by the plenary, a process of amendments would be opened for voting -in sessions that can be every two weeks, unless the urgent procedure is approved, in which case they would be weekly-, and then the paper would be prepared , which prepares the work for the commission phase. The presentation and commission debate sessions are usually two, but depending on the Table, it could also be only one. The committee would also vote on the amendments not incorporated into the text previously in the paper.

If the dedication to the plenary session is not expressly decided, since it is not an organic law proposal, the initiative could be approved directly in committee to be sent to the Senate without passing a second time through the plenary session of Congress.

As with all legislative initiatives, if the Senate does not modify them by approving an amendment, it would not be necessary for it to return to Congress for ratification. It would go directly to the BOE and come into force. Given the favorable pronouncements of the investiture partners –ERC, PNV, Eh-Bildu, PDeCat–, it seems that if PSOE and United We can force the machine, the reform of the penal code could be in force before the end of the year. By the hair. At most, in the first weeks of 2023. Today one thing has become clear: there was a sufficient majority in the House. Actually, there always was.