Moncloa imposes caution and ERC requests surgical changes in embezzlement

"Caution", they prescribe in the Moncloa.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
15 November 2022 Tuesday 22:33
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Moncloa imposes caution and ERC requests surgical changes in embezzlement

"Caution", they prescribe in the Moncloa. "Surgical" changes, they assume in ERC. Maximum prudence, therefore, in view of the under-the-radar negotiation opened with Esquerra to incorporate a reform of the crime of embezzlement during the express processing of the revision of the Criminal Code registered by the PSOE and United We Can in Congress to repeal the crime of sedition and modify the aggravated public disorder.

The Socialists thus want to tread carefully on the formula and the scope that a legislative reform of embezzlement could have, which a priori they assume has "worse digestion" than the elimination of sedition. “We are going to wait and see how far this reform goes”, they recommend, without wanting to anticipate a possible outcome of the ongoing talks with Esquerra led by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños.

Meanwhile, ERC tries to impose discretion, but at the same time casually drops bits and pieces of what they think embezzlement reform should address. Gabriel Rufián, leader of ERC in Madrid, spoke of surgical changes: "We must try to define and delimit the Criminal Code to modernize it and not give rise to misleading, interested or ideological interpretations by judges. And that means defining it much better crimes". Thus, the objective is to reduce the penalties in those embezzlements that do not imply personal enrichment, but for this it is committed to linking the touch-ups to sedition and not affecting the fight against corruption.

In addition, the Government has provided a new element on Tuesday to modify embezzlement: decriminalize that which has not involved an executed expense. Patrícia Plaja, spokesperson for the Catalan Executive, has considered that this is what happened with the Supreme Court ruling of 1-O. That it be "a reform so that someone can never again be sentenced for an alleged expense of money that has not been carried out," Plaja has made clear.

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that corruption must be prosecuted. In Moncloa they warn that if the proposed sedition reform would not leave the State helpless against future violations of the constitutional order, a change in the criminal offense of embezzlement, to differentiate that which does not imply personal gain, will not mean lowering the flag of the fight against corruption that Pedro Sánchez, they emphasize, shows off.

The spokesperson for the Executive, the socialist Isabel Rodríguez, insisted on shying away from this new open debate on the embezzlement reform, but warned that in no case would it serve to weaken the fight against political corruption. "A sign of identity and a flag of this Government, of which we feel very proud, is the fight against corruption, the exemplary role in public life, the exercise of transparency and advancing the democratic quality of our country", stressed.

The minister spokesperson did not want to go one step further on a possible reform of embezzlement and clung to circumscribing the homologation of the crime of sedition to the legal system of the European environment as the only "commitment" that the Executive assumes for now.

But United We Can also raised its voice yesterday, to distance itself from a possible review of embezzlement. "It is a delicate matter, which has edges," warned the spokesman for the purple formation in Congress, Pablo Echenique, due to the consequences it could have on crimes of corruption. Echenique thus revealed the discrepancy that exists in this regard between Podemos and the representative of the commons, Jaume Asens, or that of Izquierda Unida, Enrique Santiago, who are in favor of the reform.