Unidas Podemos studies amending the modification of the crime of public disorder

The parliamentary spokesman for Unidas Podemos, Pablo Echenique, explained that his formation is studying to amend the modification of the crime of public disorder contemplated in the bill presented by them and the PSOE to reform the Penal Code together with the repeal of the crime of sedition , in the face of criticism from social organizations that see in this change a new step in the persecution of the right to protest and the criminalization of political dissent.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
23 November 2022 Wednesday 03:31
6 Reads
Unidas Podemos studies amending the modification of the crime of public disorder

The parliamentary spokesman for Unidas Podemos, Pablo Echenique, explained that his formation is studying to amend the modification of the crime of public disorder contemplated in the bill presented by them and the PSOE to reform the Penal Code together with the repeal of the crime of sedition , in the face of criticism from social organizations that see in this change a new step in the persecution of the right to protest and the criminalization of political dissent.

In the Cafè d'Idees program on La 2 and Ràdio 4, Echenique has recognized that this reform, which contemplates prison sentences of up to five years for those who, "acting in a group and in order to threaten public peace, execute acts of violence or intimidation", is a "very delicate" issue and that it has "edges", so that he has left the door open for his group to request that this point be withdrawn during the processing of the norm.

"We are studying the possibility, we are analyzing the effects of this reform", Echenique has admitted, who has alleged that they have heard various opinions on the matter. "We have read lawyers saying one thing and saying the opposite," explained the spokesman, who explained that his group is concerned that the text "could have some kind of effect on limiting the right to peaceful protest." .

"We are studying it carefully, we have not yet made a decision but we are studying it," reiterated Echenique, who has used very similar arguments to also cool down the crime of embezzlement as Esquerra claims to prevent some of his deputies from going to jail for the organization of the 1-O referendum.

"It is a very delicate subject and it must be studied very carefully and when we have a black-on-white proposal we are going to study it very carefully", he indicated on the reform of the crime of embezzlement, on which he has warned that if the of public orders has edges, it is "doubly".

The former Minister of Economy of the Generalitat Jaume Giró (Junts) has also referred to the issue of the reform of the crime of sedition and public disorder, who has assured that the changes only benefit Sánchez who, in his opinion, "is a round business" while it is "the business of Roberto and the goats" for Catalonia.

Giró has lamented that the president of the Spanish Executive with these changes gets Europe to believe that Spain is a fully democratic state, that extraditions that until now were not given for sedition are facilitated, that the budgets are approved and that when there is noise again in Catalonia political dissidence is once again penalized.

In this sense, the ex-minister has pointed out that the problem in Spain is not the laws but the interpretation that the judges make of it, something that in his opinion is seen both in the so-called law of the Only yes is yes and in Catalonia, so that it has concluded that it cannot be left to "the discretion/abstrariness of a judge who can say that you have looked badly at or intimidated someone", alluding to the wording of the new article.