A few hours before the deadline for the presentation of amendments in Congress to the reform of the law of the only yes is yes, the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, from whose ministry the norm was promoted, has confirmed that Unidas Podemos has joined to ERC and EH Bildu and has registered its own modifications to the text very much in line with what its usual partners did last Thursday.
So, the Republicans and the Abertzales rejected the PSOE's proposal to put the evaluation of violence and intimidation back at the center of the Sexual Freedom law to determine the severity of the penalties for sexual assault and in any case they proposed that both violence such as intimidation were aggravating. They also proposed a new expanded definition of consent.
In an interview on TVE, Montero has confirmed that his group is going to amend the rule "in the line that Esquerra and Bildu have proposed" and has advanced that their proposals will propose "maintaining consent at the center of the law" and "strengthening the violence in aggravating circumstances".
"We share that a response must be given to the victims and to society in the face of the reductions in sentences that some judges are making, but we are clear that consent must remain at the center," warned the head of Equality, who considered that " It is impossible to believe that a reform agreed between the PP and PSOE is a feminist reform". For Montero, the reform has to serve to "improve that law and not to regress in the rights of women", something that, in her opinion, is what the PP wants. In this sense, she has alluded to the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, who from Congress expressed her willingness to seek an amendment to the entire law.
For this reason, the Minister for Equality has asked the Socialists to reflect in order to reach an agreement. "That the majority of the investiture goes in the same line should make the PSOE reflect and would have to make possible an agreement between the PSOE and the feminist majority that supports this government," he pointed out, adding that from United We Can they have not risen from the negotiating table. "It was the PSOE who did it," insisted Montero, who sees in these amendments "an opportunity" for the PSOE to "think about it" and instead of continuing to agree with the PP "a setback" agrees to "improve" the law.
Almost simultaneously, the Government spokesperson and Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, valued "positively the work of the political groups" to reform the text in allusion to the amendments of the Republicans and Abertzales. "All political positions must be respected and of course the work of the groups; the interest we had is that this reform be activated and the changes are underway to avoid the unwanted effects of the law," Rodríguez explained in a interview in RNE. The minister is confident of "finding as soon as possible" with "the solution to avoid what has been a problem that has generated significant social alarm." For Rodríguez, it is also "important" to transfer "tranquility to the citizenry" and complete the parliamentary process.
