The electoral advance frustrates more than 60 laws, a constitutional retouching and the commission of Operation Catalonia

The legislature closes abruptly this Tuesday and, with this, more than 60 laws will remain in the pipeline.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
29 May 2023 Monday 10:21
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The electoral advance frustrates more than 60 laws, a constitutional retouching and the commission of Operation Catalonia

The legislature closes abruptly this Tuesday and, with this, more than 60 laws will remain in the pipeline. Regulations such as the Housing Law, the decree against drought, the Family Law or the National Security Law will not follow their respective (and different) processing phases and will remain in the air, pending the decisions made by the deputies and senators. out of the July 23 elections.

The call today by Pedro Sánchez forces the suspension of all parliamentary activities planned in Congress from this Tuesday, when the dissolution of the Chamber will become effective. And, furthermore, it paralyzes the processing of all the initiatives in progress, with which more than 60 laws will remain unapproved, 25 of them from decree-laws that are already in force, another eight approved by the Government and about of about thirty promoted by the parliamentary groups.

Once the dissolution decree is published, only the Permanent Deputation of Congress will remain in operation, but not the Plenary of the Chamber, which will no longer be able to meet until the constitutive session of the next legislature, scheduled for mid-August. To begin with, the meetings of the Table and the Board of Spokespersons that were called for this Tuesday have already been officially suspended.

In addition to hosting the control session on Wednesday, this week's plenary session was going to debate the consideration of two bills, one from Vox and the other from United We Can. Vox's was a reform of the Criminal Code so that, among other things, the presidents of the Government or regional executives who promote or facilitate conduct that seeks to "attack unity or the territorial integrity of Spain".

That of United We Can sought to force companies that take their fiscal headquarters outside of Spain to return the aid and public subsidies obtained during the 10 years prior to the decision to leave the country, in the case of Ferrovial, to which the group accuses the confederate of practicing "economic piracy".

Two non-legal proposals were also going to be debated -one from the PP, on measures related to habitual housing and another from the PSOE on the National Care Economy Strategy-, as well as three motions: two, from ERC and Junts, which They asked for the transfer of Rodalies to the Generalitat de Catalunya and one from the PP, on the "deficient management" of the Executive.

Already on Thursday, the bill regulating Artistic Education was going to be approved for referral to the Senate and a decree with measures against drought and the promotion of the use of collective public transport was going to be submitted to the debate for validation terrestrial by young people. In addition, the rest of the parliamentary activities are interrupted, with which this legislature will no longer be able to see the light of more than 60 legislative texts.

Specifically, a total of 25 laws from decree laws that Congress agreed to process as bills through the urgent procedure so that the groups could introduce amendments remain in the pipeline. All are in force, some since 2020, but the electoral advance will prevent modifications, among others, of the one related to pensions or the new contribution system for the self-employed.

In the same situation, another 38 legislative texts remain, eight of which are government bills and the rest correspond to bills promoted by different parliamentary groups.

The laws approved by the Council of Ministers that will not see their processing completed in Congress are: the National Security law, the transposition of European directives for the fight against fraud, the equity of the National Health System, the efficiency law digital Justice, the Cinema Law, the one that creates the State Agency of Public Health, the Family Law and the Law of Defense. Added to them is the constitutional reform project to suppress the term diminished and replace it with 'person with disabilities'.

Among the initiatives that bear the signature of the parliamentary groups, the one on Official Secrets, the reform of the Penal Code for the protection of freedom of expression, as well as the one destined to decriminalize insults to the Crown and insults to Spain, those that reform the one that regulates the Constitutional Court and the Civil Registry, and another reform of the Criminal Code or the one that sought to grant Spanish nationality to Sahrawis born under Spanish sovereignty. The reform of the Citizen Security Law, known as the 'gag law?, has already been buried when it was not approved by the Interior Commission.

Also remaining in limbo is the law for the free first cycle of early childhood education, the laws that seek improvements for ALS patients and for the labor protection of those with a serious illness such as cancer, the Mental Health Law and the one that sought to apply a VAT of 4% to dependency services.

In cultural matters, in addition to the aforementioned Film Law, the processing of the Artistic Education Law is paralyzed. The same happens with the guarantee of access to broadband Internet at 100Mbps in rural areas and another rule to fight anti-Semitism.

Neither can the reform of the Basic Statute of Public Employees to extend paternity and maternity leave be approved in this legislature, the one that pursues that these circumstances serve for the suspension of oral proceedings and the one that recognizes public officials as agents of the authority. prisons.

The norm will also decline with measures against late payment in commercial operations, the Port Law, the protection of agricultural workers, the social economy law, the financing of urban and interurban public transport, the reform of the Social Security Law, the new fiscal regime of the Balearic Islands and the one that introduced novelties in the canary.

In addition, the dissolution of the Cortes also puts an end to two reforms to the Regulations of Congress, one that sought to regulate the 'lobbies' and another aimed at parliamentary control of non-law proposals and motions. Likewise, the commission of investigation on the sewers of the State and the 'Catalonia operation' will not be able to conclude its work in this legislature.