Leaves out the issue of hot returns and rubber balls, pending amendments, and urges a quick agreement
MADRID, 10 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This Friday, Sumar registered the reform of the Citizen Security Law, known by its detractors as the ‘Gag Law’, with a text that recovers the opinion approved in the previous legislature, although it later declined in the Interior Commission due to lack of support.
In this way, Sumar chooses to leave out the obstacles with ERC and Bildu, the discrepancies over the ban on rubber balls and the ‘hot’ returns that led the independentists to reject said reform. His idea is to refer these aspects to the amendments that may be proposed with the idea of ??building consensus.
The Interior spokesperson of the plurinational group and leader of IU, Enrique Santiago, has explained that this initiative implies the “de facto repeal” of the Gag Law and calls for parliamentary agreement between the investiture bloc to proceed quickly with this legislative change.
Santiago has defended that the “parenthesis” that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, deployed to reflect on its continuity makes it necessary to promote measures against the “harassment that forces such as PP and Vox subject to democracy”, such as the reform of the Council of the Judicial Power, the deplenalization of the so-called crimes of opinion or ending once and for all with the most restrictive aspects of fundamental rights and freedoms of the regulations approved by the popular people.
Thus, Santiago has highlighted that his group opts to recover the text of the presentation agreed upon in the previous mandate, which represented a consensus on 95% of the contents of the reform, and that had not been resumed despite nine months having already passed. of the current legislature.
In this way, he explained that points such as conditioning the amount of sanctions in cases of minority and taking into account the economic capacity of the offender are reactivated. In the ruling that is now being taken up, a 50% reduction in fines is established for people who prove income of up to 1.5 times the minimum wage and a 25% reduction if they move between that range and 2.5 times the SMI.
The possibility of reducing fines or suspending them is also contemplated if there are conciliation agreements and the reparative capacity is prioritized over sanctions, both in minors and in other cases.
Santiago has explained that the approach of respect for human rights in the actions of security forces is expressly included, the elimination of sanctions for the ‘top manta’ phenomenon, the non-penalization of dissemination of images of protests or activities of the Forces. of Security, fines for possession of cannabis are reduced and the penalty for possession of marijuana plants for consumption in places not accessible to the public disappears.
Regarding whether agreement is possible on aspects that were already problematic such as ‘hot returns’ or the prohibition of rubber balls by police officers, Santiago explained that his group’s position is one of “maximums” in regarding the recovery of civil rights and that, in any case, both aspects can be raised via amendment.
However, the Sumar deputy has explained that the non-repeal of the Gag Law only benefits the right and that his group puts “what is fundamental”, the transformation of this regulation, before what is important but not so essential. “We are absolutely open, we do not want to lead anything,” he insisted, acknowledging that “I wish” more aspects would be incorporated into the registered text, always from the perspective of applying the best legislative technique to collect changes.
Asked if he fears that police unions will reject the measure, Santiago has appeared calm and willing to explain to these organizations that the law they present guarantees the rights of the agents and even incorporates improvements for the performance of their activity.
Of course, he has stated that he does not care what “ultra” organizations think, which he does not even consider unions but rather foundations and which links PP and Vox, which use the State Security Forces and Corps to engage in politics.
On the other hand, the IU leader has expressly called on the PSOE and the rest of the parliamentary allies to soon unblock the bill on the decriminalization of crimes of opinion, which already accumulates various extensions of the deadline for amendments in the Justice Commission, and prevent the rule from ending up “sleeping the sleep of the just”, as in the previous legislature.
The initiative calls for suppressing insults to the Crown, offenses to religious feelings and outrages to national symbols, in addition to eliminating the glorification of terrorism to avoid convictions of singers and artists and, instead, including an aggravating circumstance that indicates treachery. in crimes of humiliation or humiliation of victims.
Regarding the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary, he has denounced that the body suffers an unprecedented situation in Europe due to the “hijacking” of the right and that Sumar advocates for regulatory changes supported by “qualified majorities” but without “blockades.”
That is to say, Santiago has shown itself in favor of lowering the parliamentary majority, currently set at three-fifths of the chambers, in certain cases. “We will propose mechanisms so that there can be no blockade and always respecting the majorities established by the Constitution, when they are qualified, qualified, when they are simple, simple,” he concluded.
