It remains to be seen what practical effect the substitution of the crime of sedition for that of aggravated public disorder will have in the short and medium term on those convicted or persecuted by the procés, to the extent that the crime of embezzlement of public funds also weighs on many of them. . For this reason, after the proposal for a law to reform the Penal Code was announced and registered last week, the processing phase, where amendments can be presented, is revealed to be key to the subsequent development of all legal cases linked to the procés.
For the Republican Left, it is time to face the crime of embezzlement and the Government is not closed to it. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced it yesterday in an interview with La Vanguardia and it was confirmed this Monday by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, in La Ser.
"In the processing of sedition, it is possible to consider modifying the crime of embezzlement," said Bolaños in the line proposed by the chief executive, although he has stated that ERC has not considered it for now.
However, in Esquerra they are already working on it with the intention of returning to the Penal Code prior to the reform of this crime that the PP made in 2015 after the experience of the 9-N consultation organized by Artur Mas in 2014.
In an interview on RAC1, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, recalled that then president Artur Mas and former councilors Francesc Homs, Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau were not convicted of embezzlement of public funds because what they did was not a crime.
After that experience - Aragonès has maintained - the PP introduced a corporate crime such as unfair administration within the crimes against the public administration, assuming it as a type of embezzlement, which opened the door to convictions for embezzlement in medial competition with the sedition that affect a large number of ministers convicted by the procés and that would affect Carles Puigdemont himself if he were extradited. "We have to reverse this situation," the president has argued so that "what was not a crime then is not a crime now."
In this way, Aragonès has summoned the teams to continue negotiating in the coming days and "fighting things, which do not fall from the sky." "We will work our asses off, as we have always done," warned the ERC national coordinator, who has come to accuse the judges of making "perverse" use of the crime of embezzlement. In this sense, the president has advocated "reducing the arbitrary margin of action of judges" from the legislature.
At the same time, in La Ser, Minister Bolaños considered that the Penal Code must be "reasonable" and opened the door to study any amendment: "I need to see the papers to study it," warned the minister, who was committed to continuing " building coexistence in Catalonia.
The minister has stressed that there are many crimes, such as rebellion or disobedience, related to the October 2017 referendum, which "have not been touched" in the text proposed to Congress. "In the PSOE we are all clear that the policy of building coexistence in Catalonia is good for everyone", insisted Bolaños, who recalled that in 2017 "unbearable tension" was inherited and that with Pedro Sánchez "courageous measures were taken to reunion". Bolaños has recognized that in these decisions they may have doubts "as happened with the pardons" but he has highlighted that "over time" it is seen that they have been "positive".
Bolaños has once again disassociated the reform of the crime of sedition from the negotiation with the ERC from the general budgets of the State and has explained that only when the Catalan Republicans lowered their "maximum" position to suppress it was an agreement reached, but exclusively for their adaptation to "European standards". Pedro Sánchez, in the interview in La Vanguardia, remarked that the independence movement "has always asked for amnesty" and that his proposal "has nothing to do with it."
The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, has gone further by stating in an interview on Antena 3 “that the regulation of the crime of embezzlement is very unequal, because obviously the corrupt person who takes the money in his pocket is not the same as the person who He doesn't take the money in his pocket."
The commons admit that there are conversations in the Congress about the possible reform of the crime of embezzlement. In fact, the president of the parliamentary group of United We Can, Jaume Asens, has already been in favor of reforming this crime to leave it practically as it was before the reform promoted by the Government of Mariano Rajoy and he is the one who "is studying the wording to see if there is room for improvement.” Although they do not reveal whether they will present an amendment in this regard, they are in favor of differentiating in this crime between whether or not there is personal enrichment.
The crime of embezzlement "was modified by the PP with clear political intentions", so "we must guarantee that the crime does not serve to repress those who have not embezzled", commented spokesperson Joan Mena. However, the commons believe that the "reflection" on the embezzlement reform "must be done carefully because it affects corruption crimes."
In any case, the commons assure that after the judicialization process "it has not finished". "It started with the pardons, it continues with the sedition reform, but there will be more," the spokesman remarked.
On the other hand, the PSC does not get wet about embezzlement and limits itself to pointing out that they will already pronounce themselves, in any case, when amendments are presented in this regard. In response to the leader of the ERC, Oriol Junqueras, who now conditions the negotiation of the Catalan budgets to the embezzlement reform, those of Salvador Illa once again reject a change of cards and denounce the "lightness" and "passivity" with which the Government takes over the evolution of the accounts.
