The Spanish Constitution, which for 45 years has referred to people with disabilities as “physically, sensorially and mentally handicapped,” will soon stop doing so.
The reform of article 49 of the Magna Carta begins its parliamentary process today with a monographic plenary session in the Congress of Deputies. Once the 48-hour period for presenting amendments has passed, it will likely be approved again in plenary on Thursday to be sent to the Senate for final approval in the week of January 24.
Apart from the replacement of the term disabled by the expression “people with disabilities”, the reform will include the obligation of public powers to “carry out the necessary policies to guarantee full personal autonomy and social inclusion” of the group, as well as special attention to minors and women with disabilities.
The express schedule for this processing is due to the support of PSOE and PP, who agreed to do it urgently. That is, by a single reading and without going through the presentation and commission phases, which, in practice, reduces the deadlines by half.
A modification of the Constitution of this type requires a minimum support of three-fifths of each chamber (210 deputies and 159 senators). The support of socialists and popular people is, therefore, sufficient. But as they have been saying in recent weeks, practically all of the parties with parliamentary representation have joined together, with the exception of Vox.
The ultra party argues that it is not the right time to "open the melon" of a reform of the Magna Carta when "the enemies of Spain", in reference to the separatist formations, "are partners of Pedro Sánchez." Hence, those of Santiago Abascal have not yet revealed the meaning of their vote.
There will be amendments, but none are expected to be accepted, since the PP and the PSOE agreed that they would only be accepted by mutual agreement and that, in any case, the reform would be limited to article 49.
The Socialists have also guaranteed the Popular Party that their Sumar partners will not support holding a constitutional referendum to ratify the reform, which could be called with the signature of 35 deputies.
Despite the current consensus, the reform will arrive almost six years late. It was in 2018 when journalist Vicky Bendito took the first step by registering the citizen initiative on the Change.org platform, where, in just a few weeks, she obtained the 80,000 signatures necessary to transfer it to Parliament.
The idea began to float around in her head after participating in a reading of the Constitution in Congress, where she previously worked for years as a parliamentary reporter for the Servimedia news agency. Bendito chose article 49 for the occasion. And he admits that it caused him absolute “surprise” to read that fragment aloud because it was written “from a rehabilitative medical point of view.”
The promoter of this reform described it as nonsense that the Magna Carta kept those words in force when the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities agreed and approved, already in 2006, a change in the treatment of this group to their full inclusion in society, especially in the educational and work spheres.
