The majority of the Government is given five days for the reform of the 'gag law'

Órdago of the coalition government partners to their parliamentary allies.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
09 March 2023 Thursday 22:27
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The majority of the Government is given five days for the reform of the 'gag law'

Órdago of the coalition government partners to their parliamentary allies. PSOE and Unidas Podemos activated the countdown yesterday to reform the Citizen Security law by convening the Interior Commission in which the opinion approved in the presentation will be voted on. A text to reform the gag law that arrives without the necessary agreement –for the moment– to pass the next parliamentary process. In this way, the six parties that have been working for more than a year to modify the norm now have five days to negotiate in extremis before a decisive vote –with lights and stenographers–: if the groups remain in their acrimonious positions, the reform will fall on deaf ears.

The political groups, which are already creating their own story in case the reform attempt is shipwrecked, report that a Black Tuesday is coming in Congress. There is a huge rift between the parties that promoted the reform.

The PSOE, Unidas Podemos and the PNV are committed to approving the reform with the agreed changes in 36 of the 54 articles of the current regulation. They will vote yes to the opinion.

ERC, Junts and EH Bildu consider that what has been agreed so far is a "make-up" of the Popular Party law that needs more tweaking. They will vote no. Hence, it is possible to live a day in which "the great collective failure" of the progressive majority is evident.

On Tuesday, the first public debate on the bill will be held since its consideration was approved in September 2020. In the last year and a half, almost fifty discreet meetings have been held between the groups to advance the reform. Nearly 40 common points have been achieved. Spontaneous demonstrations "in the event of events that require immediate public expression" will not be punishable. Protests that cause "serious disturbance" in front of the Congress of Deputies will cease to be a serious offence. There will be no penalty for taking and disseminating images of agents during their performances. There will be reductions in the fines linked to the minimum interprofessional salary of the offender. Or the maximum time to identify in police stations will go from six to two hours. And so up to 36 articles.

But there are four points of contention in which the discrepancies have made it impossible to move forward: the use of riot gear, disrespect for agents, sanctions for disobedience and the so-called hot returns of immigrants at the border. Around these four points, the Ministry of the Interior has drawn some red lines so that they are not modified. “We cannot disarm the protection of the agents”, justify ministerial sources.

Facing the position of the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska are the nationalist groups that accuse the minister of being hostage to the police unions and Civil Guard associations that feel most comfortable being supported by the right. Last Tuesday in a “very tense” meeting, according to eye sources, ERC put on the table that there would be no type of agreement if the use of rubber balls and hot returns were not expressly prohibited.

From the socialist ranks it was thought that with the written commitment to study the use of this riot material this obstacle would be overcome. As with the promise to remove hot returns from the gag law to modify them, later, through the Immigration Law.

None of this convinces the partners who, to this day, say they continue to support the no to the reform.

Tuesday's vote will be crucial. If the text achieves a simple majority, it will advance in its last parliamentary process towards the plenary session, where it will need -because it is an organic law- an absolute majority. However, if a simple majority is not reached in the commission vote, the reform will fall: everything that has been advanced in a year and a half will be thrown overboard.