Faced with the intense political storm unleashed, the Government defends the reform of the Criminal Code, with the repeal of sedition and the controversial review of the crime of embezzlement, which is expected to be approved by the plenary session of Congress by an absolute majority this coming Thursday. And for this he wields the "effectiveness" that other previous "risky" decisions by Pedro Sánchez already had, such as the granting of pardons to the imprisoned leaders of the process, to defuse the political conflict in Catalonia. "Time is proving us right," said the spokesperson for the Executive, the socialist Isabel Rodríguez, this Tuesday after the meeting of the Council of Ministers.
The minister spokesperson has insisted that with this reform "no type of embezzlement is decriminalized", despite the initial claims of ERC. In addition, with the transactional amendment approved today in the Justice Commission of Congress, in the Executive branch they consider that this review may not have unwanted consequences due to its judicial application in cases of corruption of the past, such as the Gürtel or Kitchen plots, just as it happened with the new law of yes is yes that caused half a hundred reductions of sentenced to sexual offenders. "Now, the judiciary will have to apply this rule with the guidance given by Parliament," Rodríguez warned.
But the Government puts the great objective of the initiative before penal reform, which is "the recovery of coexistence and harmony" in Catalonia. “Time is also proving us right. And this is a sentiment shared by the vast majority of Spaniards and Catalans”, underlined Rodríguez. "We do not want to return to the Catalonia of 2017", he reiterated, referring to when the disconnection laws were approved in Parliament, an illegal referendum on self-determination was held and a fleeting unilateral declaration of independence was proclaimed.
"The Government can boast of having gone a long way in this direction to restore harmony, dialogue and normality," he insisted. It is enough to verify it, she has assured, by walking through the streets of Barcelona or any municipality in Catalonia today. "The normalization and recovery of affections between Catalans has occurred today, and the reality has nothing to do with that of 2017," she stated.
The objectives of the Pedro Sánchez reunion agenda are obtaining "very good results", he insisted. "It may be risky, but it is certainly being effective," he reiterated. "The Government's objective, shared by all Spaniards, is coexistence in our country," said the Government spokesperson. Always, she has warned, "in the margins that the norms allow us." That is, without going beyond the law or the Constitution.
"Since Pedro Sánchez is president, the law and the Constitution have been complied with in Catalonia, having recovered harmony and coexistence", underlined Isabel Rodríguez. In this sense, the spokesperson for the Executive has rejected the referendum that ERC proposes in the political presentation of its next congress. Isabel Rodríguez has thus assured that "the ERC agenda is contrary to the Constitution and, therefore, no referendum is going to be held in our country." "A referendum on self-determination is unconstitutional and it will not be held, because the Constitution prohibits it," she forcefully reiterated. And in Moncloa they reaffirm it: "There will not be a referendum, neither agreed nor unilateral, because it is unconstitutional."
Isabel Rodríguez has insisted that the Government's decisions "are proving effective", and recalled that if in 2017 the conflict in Catalonia was the second concern of Spaniards, according to the CIS, now it has almost disappeared from the map, thanks to the government action. "Today the independence movement is no longer a majority sentiment in Catalonia", she has settled.
