"On the proven facts of the sentence of the procés there is no fact that is decriminalized, none." The Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, has shown himself so forceful about the effects of the reform of the Penal Code that is being processed in Congress - it has been approved this Tuesday in the Justice Commission of the Chamber (19 votes in favor, 17 against and one abstention) - in the condemnations of the leaders of the 1-O referendum, an interpretation that contrasts with that made by Esquerra, that with the elimination of sedition and the reduction of embezzlement, they understand that an effect is produced that is close to amnesty.
"All of them are penalized with new crimes such as aggravated public disorder and irregular diversion of funds," Bolaños added in an interview on Tuesday on TVE, in which the decision on whether any review should proceed to the Supreme Court of the sentences, in particular those of disqualification since those of prison have already been pardoned by the Government, he recalled.
Bolaños has also rejected the accusations and fears that the corrupt could be favored with this reform. "For the corrupt, the situation will be worse", the minister argued because "a new crime is created", alluding to illicit enrichment, and "aggravating circumstances are hardening". In any case, he has justified the reform to homogenize these crimes to European standards and has argued for this the failure of the Euro-orders to extradite Carles Puigdemont. In this sense, he has highlighted that the idea of profit for aggravated embezzlement has been recovered and the crime of irregular diversion of public funds has been created with a penalty of up to four years in prison.
The minister has also assured that there will not be another independence referendum in Catalonia, "neither agreed nor unilateral", as Esquerra wants and its president, Oriol Junqueras, has verbalized today. An initiative that, according to Bolaños, "is contrary to the Constitution, divisive and would only make the conflict chronic".
In this sense, the minister has highlighted the value of the dialogue table between the central and Catalan governments to the extent that, as he explained, it was agreed that politics would be carried out "within the law and within the Constitution and that solutions that are not divisive". "We are about to overcome the tension of 2017 and that coexistence is guaranteed and that the relationship with the rest of Spain is normalized," Bolaños has sentenced.
The head of the Presidency has also admitted that the reforms seek to "turn the page on events as unfortunate as what we experienced in Catalonia in 2017" and has called on the PP, so critical of the Executive's initiatives in this regard, to "explain to us its project for Spain and Catalonia". "Is it going back to the Catalonia of 2017? He asked himself to add that "it was a catastrophe". And he has contrasted it with the Government's project: dialogue, pact, politics within the law and the institutions, and "pass page of unilateralism" and of the "two referendums that were carried out on the PP", he recalled.
