The reform of the crime of sedition is just the spearhead of a series of amendments to the Criminal and Legislative Code that the Government considers that Moncloa should promote. The Generalitat has prudence and discretion as watchwords. So much so that he avoids at all times taking a position on whether he would assume changes in the penalties for sedition or in its classification, or if he directly claims sedition. "The Government already knows what it has to do," the spokeswoman for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja, warned Pedro Sánchez today. She does so relying on reports that have been issued in recent years from different areas of the UN, the Council of Europe and Amnesty International. And the Government relies on them, not only to remind that the crime of sedition must be homologated to European standards, but also to warn that all these organizations demand more reforms that go beyond the main crime for which some leaders were convicted. independentistas for the 1-O.
"Work is being done on dejudicializing the political conflict, and this does not refer to a specific crime, but to a whole or to different aspects," Plaja said this afternoon at the press conference after the meeting of the Consell Executiu before recalling which refers to those international reports that the Government considers to mark the way.
For the Catalan Cabinet, it is a certainty that the Criminal Code contains crimes "of a political nature that all instances say must be reformed." "France, Germany and Switzerland, to give a few examples, already reformed these crimes in the 1960s and 1970s to adapt them to democracy and human rights," said the spokeswoman. "The dejudicialization folder is much broader", she has continued to conclude that the Spanish State has a "democratic deficit".
What reforms are pointed out in this European documentation? In addition to changes in sedition, for example, Amnesty International has demanded the repeal of article 578 of the Penal Code -which prohibits the "glorification of terrorism" and the "humiliation of the victims of terrorist crimes"-, which considers an attack on the freedom of expression and for which users of social networks, journalists, legal professionals and musicians have been condemned. Pablo Haselar is in prison for this reason. Or that the crime be liquidated for insulting the Crown, in accordance with the European Court of Human Rights. There are also doubts about the "gag law", now clogged by fines for offending the police.
Today's position of the Government is the one maintained by ERC, the party that governs alone. Yesterday, the spokesperson for the formation, Marta Vilalta, already warned of the variety of modifications that the Government would have to carry out: "What the ERC wants is for the Spanish State to make those appropriate reforms so that it adapts to European standards in relation to the Penal Code and that it make the appropriate reforms also to end political repression. And here we could talk about many issues that do not end or begin with the reform of the Penal Code."
All this, within the framework of a dialogue table meeting between the Spanish and Catalan governments that both parties promised to hold before the end of the year. These reforms should also be closed before the year, with the crime of sedition as the main figure. This was agreed at the previous meeting of the dialogue table, that of July 27 in Madrid.
Be that as it may, the political context of the last quarter of the year is marked by the coincidence in the time of the dialogue table and the possible approval of both the general budgets of the State and the Catalans. Plaja has been emphatic when it comes to separating the three aspects and has assured that they are negotiations that take place in parallel. Now, from the ERC they are clear that the advances in terms of dejudicialization will condition the endorsement of the party to Sánchez's accounts.
The Generalitat's budgets are further behind and their future seems much more uncertain than those of the State. Pere Aragonès has already met with the commons, the CUP and Junts to address them. This Friday he will meet with Salvador Illa, first secretary of the PSC. Plaja has once again disassociated this issue from dejudicialisation, although Oriol Junqueras conditioned the search for the support of the Catalan socialists to their taking clear steps to end "the repression".
On the other hand, the Government has approved a decree to increase the current budget of Salut by 376 million. An increase that, as explained by Plaja, is possible thanks to the additional income obtained through transferred and own taxes managed by the Generalitat. The Parliament must endorse this measure within a maximum period of 30 days.
The Catalan Executive ensures that spending needs have increased in the Department of Health. Despite the fact that the expense derived from the covid pandemic has decreased, "it still has an impact on the finances of the Generalitat." The increase of almost 400 million is justified because new medicines have also been incorporated into the public portfolio and the Government considers that it is necessary to speed up ordinary health activity from before the coronavirus.
The Government has also appointed the board of directors of the public energy company, which will be chaired by Ferran Civit, a former ERC deputy, who was already the director of the program that has promoted the design and creation of the company.
