"We will not enter into a public auction of negotiation on the Penal Code because it is a very serious issue." Esquerra caution has been prescribed. So much so that he does not clarify in public whether he would agree to a reduction in sedition penalties instead of their repeal or if it is necessary that the classification of the crime also be modified. That is why the deputy general secretary of the party, Marta Vilalta, has avoided any specificity today at the usual Monday press conference.
Vilalta has limited himself to pointing out that "the Government knows very well what it has to do: what international organizations set for it and to democratize the State." The ERC leader has mentioned at this point the UN, Amnesty International and the Council of Europe, which in different areas have demanded that Spain adapt its Penal Code "to European standards" of respect for human rights, as Vilalta has underlined . A position that serves to justify that Esquerra does not present a parliamentary initiative in Congress, since she considers that the ball is on the roof of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez.
The also spokeswoman for the Republicans has remarked, however, that her training will be "very demanding" with the PSOE Government in this regard. However, Vilalta has slipped that reforms should not only be undertaken in the crime of sedition, or in the Penal Code, but also in other areas. She again has not specified in what aspects: "What 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 also makes the appropriate reforms to end political repression . And here we could talk about many issues that do not end or begin in the reform of the Penal Code”.
It is clear that it is also important for the Republicans to obtain a response to their referendum proposal, but those of Oriol Junqueras have focused on the dejudicialization of politics. Not only in the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments, but in the parallel negotiation on the general budgets of the State. Both issues are linked.
But a hypothetical downward revision of the penalties for the crime of sedition does not resolve the conflict either. In this fucking, it should be remembered that, for example, that the ERC deputies Josep Maria Jové or Lluís Salvadó, who were considered architects of 1-O, are being prosecuted for embezzlement, prevarication and disclosure of secrets, and not for sedition .
From Junts, on the other hand, they are clearer. They have repeatedly stated that their position is to repeal the crime of sedition and not a reform that reduces penalties, as is now contemplated in Moncloa. The secretary general of the formation, Jordi Turull, expressed this this morning in Ser Catalunya and former president Carles Puigdemont also spoke in this way a few days ago before a few words from Pedro Sánchez about the possibility of undertaking the reform if there is parliamentary support.
In the PDECat, which has four deputies in Congress, they ask to address the matter "face-on" to "adapt an anachronistic concept to European standards", as pointed out by the deputy general secretary of the party heir to Convergència, Marc Solsona , coinciding with CKD. As he has recalled, in the Cortes Generales "there are majorities necessary to carry out the reform." In the Government they had shielded themselves in the past in that they did not give the numbers for these modifications in the Penal Code.
The commons and the PSC also play a role in this reform by being part of the coalition government. The former boast that what they call 'via Asens' prevails in this matter, attributing the paternity of the idea on the reform of the crime of sedition and rebellion to the president of the parliamentary group of United We Can, Jaume Asens. Although in their initial proposal the commoners advocated linking crime to the use of violence using weapons or other dangerous elements, but now they are willing to modulate that proposal and bring it closer to the Government's claims as long as there is an agreement.
According to spokesperson Joan Mena, what En Comú Podem wants is to "advance the negotiations" and promote all the proposals contained "in the dejudicialization agenda", emphasizing the reform of sedition because "it is a common sense measure that We claim, among other things, to homologate ourselves to European justice". In this sense, they value the predisposition of the current Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, who they see as more inclined to make certain changes in the penal reform that her predecessor, Juan Carlos Campo, was not willing to make.
For their part, the Socialists insist on disassociating the negotiations of the general budgets of the State from this reform. They highlight their predisposition to reform crime as it is a legislature commitment assumed by President Sánchez, but they warn that this commitment does not include that it must be adopted in 2022, as ERC would like by linking both folders. "It is a legislative commitment and not until the end of 2022," said spokeswoman Elia Tortolero. Now, the PSC recalls that it is a reform that must be approved in Congress, and therefore they will work on it "when there are these majorities and it is time."
