He denies that the reform can be considered an amnesty because it means erasing criminal proceedings: “it is not the case”
BARCELONA, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, has reaffirmed this Monday the Government’s commitment to “adjust” the Penal Code to the legislation of other European countries and modify the crime of sedition when there is a parliamentary majority for it, but has disassociated it from the Budget negotiation.
Asked during a visit to a Post Office in Barcelona if the Government is open to halving the sentence for sedition as published on Monday by ‘El País’, he said: “What the Government does is what the president did of the Government, which is to reaffirm the commitment to adjust our legislation to the legislation of European countries”.
“This is what we have committed to and when we have a parliamentary majority that supports it, we will do so,” he stressed.
Asked if the reform is linked to the negotiation of the Budgets, he said no and paraphrased the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, that “notebooks cannot be mixed.”
He has explained that he contemplates the possibility of reforming the Penal Code since 2017: “It is not that there were no Budgets, it is that we were not even in the Government.”
The minister has denied that an eventual sedition reform can be considered an amnesty, and has said that an amnesty “is an extraordinary procedure when there is a change of regime and erases criminal proceedings, it is not the case.”
He stressed that this is a reform of the Penal Code that will be done if a majority is reached and, when asked if he has one, he replied: “When I have it, I will tell you. These things have to be verified in practice. The day the that in Congress there is a proposal that attracts majority support, that day we will be able to confirm that there is a majority and a reform to which we have committed ourselves will be produced”.
He has stated that he has not been surprised by the reaction of the different political forces to the commitment announced by the Government, and has assured that “everyone has adjusted to the foreseeable script”.
