MADRID, 29 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Congress will once again host this Wednesday the presentation for the reform of the Citizen Security Law, known by its detractors as the ‘gag law’, a closed-door meeting in which the Government and its parliamentary partners must verify if there is a consensus to fulfill the promise to repeal the norm approved by the PP in 2015.
The Government and its parliamentary allies gave themselves one more week to try to overcome the obstacles in the articles that regulate the use of rubber bullets as police material, as well as administrative sanctions for disobedience and lack of respect for the agents or the ‘ hot returns’.
At this point, the Executive of PSOE and Unidas Podemos believes that it has tied the support of the PNV, author of the bill that is being debated, but to carry out the reform, given that it has organic rank, it is not enough to abstain from the other allies, but it needs the vote in favor of 176 deputies.
ERC and EH Bildu, among others, maintain their ‘no’ to give the green light to the text. Parliamentary sources consulted by Europa Press have indicated that they will try to reach an agreement this coming Monday in an internal meeting, although they are not optimistic. Other formations do believe that it is possible to overcome the obstacles to carry out the presentation and raise it to the plenary session.
The reform raises suspicions among the Security Forces and Bodies. Police unions called a massive demonstration in Madrid in November 2021 in response to the ‘gag law’ amendments, at the start of the negotiation.
Among the representatives of the police and civil guards there are discrepancies about the suitability of reconvening a demonstration now, although they slip that there are sectors that do not rule it out and that they are vigilant, understanding that the new law can leave them unprotected.
Most of the PSOE allies urge him to act with “courage” to close the agreement, although they know that the Ministry of the Interior led by Fernando Grande-Marlaska does not give in on the points that remain aground, including eliminating rubber balls as material riot police, replacing them with another material such as ‘foam’, emulating Mossos d’Esquadra and Ertzaintza.
The spokesman for Unidas Podemos, Pablo Echenique, acknowledged after the last meeting of the presentation that “important issues” remain to be closed, citing the “objectification” of the lack of respect for the police to put an end to “you can be fined for looking wrong” to an agent. “The PSOE does not agree to take courageous steps to repeal it,” he denounced, stressing that it is the article with which the most sanctions are processed.
Sources familiar with the negotiation recall that the PSOE partners are demanding greater precision to regulate the necessary “corporate opposition” in another of the articles without an agreement, that of sanctions for disobedience.
They are also distant in relation to direct returns, a matter for which the Ministry of the Interior was once again highly criticized as a result of the deaths registered along the Melilla border. EH Bildu and ERC do not accept that this issue remains at the expense of regulation through the Immigration Law.
Minority groups, such as Más País, have also warned that they will not give their support to approve a “decaffeinated” modification of the ‘gag law’.
