Failure of the political parties that conspired to try to remove the gag imposed on the Citizen Security law by the Popular Party. The law will remain intact eight years after being approved thanks to the popular vote. The Congress of Deputies yesterday certified the demise of the reform after ERC, EH Bildu and Junts - three of the parties driving the repeal - voted against the opinion because they consider that the agreements reached were only "a make-up" of one of the most contested rules of Mariano Rajoy's government.
The Interior Commission started with all the parties giving the reform as dead. The abstention - at least - of the pro-independence parties was essential for the text to move forward in its parliamentary procedure, but they had already announced that not only would they not abstain, but they would vote against it. "We cannot be accomplices", warned EH Bildu deputy Jon Iñarritu, "of a new law that does not eliminate rubber balls and keeps refunds hot". And it is that these two aspects, together with the sanctions for disrespecting the officers and the fines for disobedience, have been the obstacles that they have not been able to overcome.
Four articles of the Citizen Security law that the Ministry of the Interior shielded from the beginning of the negotiations: nor would the use of rubber balls be expressly prohibited in an organic law; nor would hot refunds be prohibited because they are endorsed by the Constitutional Court; and disrespect or disobedience would also not be decriminalized in order not to disarm the protection of the agents. These were the red lines imposed by the ministry led by Fernando Grande-Marlaska. And they haven't passed.
During the exchange of reproaches that flooded the debate that preceded the vote yesterday, the spokesmen of the groups that promoted the reform described the day as a "sad day", a "loss of historic opportunity" or a "failure "group" of left-wing parties. After the lamentations, each formation began to unload blame outside its ranks, while the majority union of the National Police and the association of the Civil Guard celebrated with shouts of joy the collapse of the reform.
The partners of the Government - and especially the PSOE - took much of the criticism, despite the fact that both were stumped during their turns to defend that the working group had managed to modify 36 of the 54 articles of the law gag, as well as incorporating almost a dozen additional provisions. Nor did it serve to try to drag the pro-independence parties towards abstention. "It would be a drama to drop the reform when there is still time", warned the spokesman of Unides Podem, Enrique Santiago, who predicted that the failure of the reform would mean "five more years with Rajoy's gag law".
The text fell by 19 votes against and 18 in favor. The Popular Party erupted in applause when it was confirmed that the reform fell, while the usual partners in Congress - who were negotiating in extremis until the last stop - left the room admitting "sorrow" and "absolute disappointment" . They assume that the legislative calendar allows little room to tweak the gag law, which will remain intact eight years later.
