SEVILLA, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former Vice President of the Government and historical socialist leader Alfonso Guerra has warned this Tuesday that a negotiation with the ERC that culminates in the reduction of the penalties for the crime of sedition contemplated in the Penal Code may be “electorally harmful” for the PSOE, and has underlined that “people have a nose” and do not accept “monsergas”.
Alfonso Guerra spoke in this way in an interview on Canal Sur Radio, collected by Europa Press, regarding the commitment made by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, after arriving at Moncloa to reform the crime of sedition to reduce his sentence, and which has become topical due to the ERC request for it to materialize once and for all, coinciding with the debate on the General State Budgets (PGE).
The also former deputy general secretary of the PSOE has recalled that “the Government” of Sánchez “justifies” that this possible reform of the crime of sedition “goes separately” from the negotiation of the PGE of 2023, but has warned that “people have the fly behind the ear”, and “if they are negotiating the Budgets and put on the table” that issue, “very separate I don’t think they will go”.
After adding that “drawing the Budgets” forward “is always a very complicated task for any government”, Alfonso Guerra has opined that “reducing the sentences of people who have been convicted of sedition – alluding to those convicted of the independence process Catalan that led to the call for the referendum on October 1, 2017– it is very difficult, very hard to accept”.
Along the same lines, he has warned against “nonsense” such as the one that, according to what he has criticized, “is now heard every day”, and which involves “saying that Bildu is doing what we Democrats asked him to do, “to stop shooting and come to the polls”, and in response to this, Guerra has pointed out that “we asked for more things” from that party, “to condemn ETA’s terrorism”, “to help us discover the murders” of crimes pending clarification, and has commented that “they do nothing like that” from Bildu.
“People have a nose, and people don’t accept all this type of negotiation, and electorally it’s going to be harmful for the PSOE”, predicted Alfonso Guerra, who underlined that these are “such delicate matters that they in themselves need a lot of reflection”, and that he has pointed out that “the socialist electorate is a little worried”.
In addition, he has criticized those “who are with this story” that with the reform of the crime of sedition the aim is to put the Criminal Code “at the level of Europeans”, and has asserted that “that is a lie”, because “Europeans have all kinds of laws, varied”, and, although “in the terminology they use, sedition does not exist, the sentences are as high or higher than here” for this type of assumption.
On the other hand, when asked about the negotiations to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Alfonso Guerra began by commenting that it seems “an error” that “the negotiation” currently underway “is between the Government and the party of the opposition”, in reference to the PP, and “that is not said in the Constitution or the law of the Judiciary, which says that the negotiation is between the parliamentary groups”.
Therefore, “the Government has nothing to negotiate, it is the parliamentary groups, and if two agree and join, the others have no reason to claim any member”, commented the former vice president, who along these lines has criticized that “one of the parties” to the current negotiation “is a minister” of the Executive.
In addition, Alfonso Guerra has said that “he is very surprised that a commissioner from the European Union arrives” in this country –in reference to Justice, Didier Reynders– to tell Spain how the members of the CGPJ should vote and nobody I have slapped him here metaphorically”.
He has also asserted that the judges chosen by Parliament for the CGPJ “cannot leave the list of 50 given by the associations of judges.” Given this, he stressed that he claims “popular sovereignty” to proceed to renew the governing body of the judges, “more than the associations” of magistrates, “which already have a huge participation because they give the lists that must be chosen” , according to Alfonso Guerra.
