Pedro Sánchez was installed in what Moncloa defined as "a winning frame". With new taxes on banks, energy and large fortunes, it has broad social support in the face of the energy and inflationary crisis. With a fiscal battle for the tax cuts of the PP, which confronts a neoliberal model and another social democrat of defense at all costs of pillars of the welfare state such as health, education and public pensions. In addition, with the white tide that was resurrected in Madrid on Sunday against the health management of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. And with the rupture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the agreement to unblock the Judiciary. All of this, towards municipal and regional elections in six months – determining factors for the general ones scheduled for December 2023 – in which the PSOE exhibited the unit staged in Seville with Felipe González for the anniversary of the 1982 triumph.
But the winds of politics are blowing hard, transforming the landscape in a matter of days, if not hours. The rupture of the judicial agreement with the PP accelerated the agreement between the PSOE and ERC to promote the suppression of the crime of sedition, for which the leaders of the process were convicted. And even before Congress approves the consideration of this reform of the Criminal Code next week, Sánchez opened the door to a review of the crime of embezzlement in this parliamentary process, which generates alarm due to its possible impact on the fight against corruption.
At the same time, another intense legal controversy broke out, with the cascade of reductions in sentences for sexual offenders in application of the new law on Sexual Freedom. And the consequence, alert socialist cadres, is a deviation from the focus on the strategy set in Moncloa and Ferraz, with a government forced to be on the defensive to face the storm. A division in the PSOE, with regional presidents and territorial leaders who refuse to reform sedition and demand to correct the law of only yes is yes. And an accentuation of the internal confrontation, already in three souls, in the coalition Executive between the PSOE and United We Can, before the friction between Yolanda Díaz and the purple formation.
In Moncloa and Ferraz they had already been warning of the "tension" triggered some time ago in the space to the left of the PSOE, between Vice President Díaz and Podemos. "We already saw the differences clearly during the preparation of the budget project or in the negotiation for the renewal of the Judiciary," they warn.
With their sights set not only on the action of the Executive, but also on the electoral calendar, while Yolanda Díaz builds her Sumar project for the general elections and Podemos faces bad expectations for the municipal and regional elections, the Socialists call on both to "solve their discrepancies”. "It is important that there is no distraction from the vote," they warn. With the example of the last elections in Andalusia: the division in space to the left of the PSOE only served to facilitate the absolute majority of the PP. Although, from their own experience, the socialists warn: "Civil wars are very difficult to suture."
The debate on a reform of the crime of embezzlement divides the Socialists, but also to their left, with the found positions expressed by Pablo Echenique against the position of Jaume Asens or Enrique Santiago.
And the reaction to the unwanted effects of the new law on Sexual Freedom also accentuates the division in the government coalition. From Podemos, the ministers Irene Montero and Ione Belarra go out in force to defend their star law, in which they do not recognize legal technical errors, and to accuse the judges of “machismo”. But socialist ministers such as María Jesús Montero and Pilar Alegría reply that if this law has any gap to fulfill its main objective, which is to strengthen the protection of victims, it will have to be corrected.
In addition, the accusation of machismo by Podemos, which revolts judges and prosecutors, is forcefully answered by the PSOE. "We must always maintain absolute respect for the action of the judges," the minister spokesperson, the Socialist Isabel Rodríguez, settled yesterday on behalf of the entire Government. And, again, Yolanda Díaz does not align herself in this controversy with Podemos.
For its part, Junts per Catalunya announced yesterday that it will present an amendment to the entirety with an alternative text to the bill of the socialists and purples to repeal the crime of sedition in the Criminal Code and modify the crime of aggravated public disorder. The alternative proposal, as detailed by the formation's spokesperson in Madrid, Míriam Nogueras, will be based on the jurisprudence issued by the European courts in the last four years as a result of the process and will be "clear, concise, precise and without any ambiguity".
The formation intends that sedition be repealed without there being any change in the crime of public disorder, this is without compensation. Other aspects that are being considered in JxCat is that the retroactive effects of the repeal are clarified, as happened 20 years ago with the suppression of the insubordination of objectors. They also give an example of the decriminalization of the crime of calling referendums in 2005.
Junts will focus on repealing sedition and does not consider changing embezzlement. However, they do not close the door to study the amendments that are registered in this regard. "The crime of sedition goes out the door, but the crime of aggravated public disorder comes through the window and that is an absolutely unacceptable counterpart," Nogueras summarized. The General Secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, expressed himself in the same vein in RAC1.
This amendment to the entirety with an alternative text, a resource that the PP, Vox and Cs also plan to use, will force another debate to be held in Congress apart from that of taking it into consideration, scheduled next week, and that of final approval of the norm .
