The package for democratic regeneration that the Council of Ministers will study on Tuesday is broad and contains many delicate issues that have been discussed internally in the coalition and with the main partners for weeks, but the plan was not yet fully finalised on Monday, just hours before the final decision. Pedro Sánchez confirmed to the socialist deputies, as EL PAÍS had anticipated, that the Government would finally approve it on Tuesday, but the discussion between the Executive partners was still open about the reform of several laws that affect fundamental rights. There is an underlying debate between PSOE and Sumar, which at the end of Monday was still not resolved on the elimination of some controversial crimes that limit freedom of expression, such as offences to religious feelings or insults to the Crown and the high institutions of the State.
The current wording of the Spanish Penal Code, very unusual in Europe, has allowed the imprisonment of well-known rappers or very harsh legal proceedings against satirical publications that have not existed in other countries and have led to sentences against Spain by the European Court of Human Rights for limiting freedom of expression. Both the PSOE and Sumar agree to change this part of the Penal Code, but they dispute the scope, which blocked the plan, according to sources in the negotiation. Those in charge of closing it were the socialist Félix Bolaños, Minister of Justice and Presidency, and Ernest Urtasun, of Culture, for Sumar.
The PSOE is willing to eliminate the crime against religious feelings, which has led Christian groups to pursue all kinds of satire related to the Catholic religion. But it has more doubts about those that insult the Crown and high institutions of the State, which includes not only the Government, but also the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the General Council of the Judiciary.
Sumar insists that the commitment to repeal these crimes must be expressly mentioned in the plan that comes out of the Council of Ministers, but the socialists were in favour of a more generic wording to develop the details in the future. What is certain is that the PSOE will reject Sumar’s claim to suppress the criminal figure of glorifying terrorism.
The PSOE has already agreed on two occasions to consider in Congress the proposals – previously from Unidas Podemos, now from Sumar – to suppress these crimes of opinion, but until now it had let them languish. After the blockage suffered in the previous legislature, the minority partner of the Government returned to the charge in this one with one of its first parliamentary proposals of the current mandate. The proposal to reform the Penal Code in this sense was taken into consideration on December 19, 2023 by the plenary session of Congress, with the support of the entire investiture bloc, including the socialists. Since then, as had happened previously, it remains blocked in the Table.
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Sumar argues that these crimes are “anomalous” within European legislation and that they have given rise to sentences against musicians and Twitter users. For this party, the King and the main institutions of the State have the same mechanisms as any citizen to defend themselves against insulting attacks, without the need to provide them with individual protection with a specific criminal figure. The same is argued for the case of glorification of terrorism, which, in Sumar’s opinion, would already be covered by the general crime of apology for violence.
The PSOE and Sumar have also been arguing until the last minute about the central axis of the package that Sánchez announced after he decided to stop his activity for five days and consider the possibility of leaving politics when a judge initiated proceedings against his wife that La Moncloa considers unfounded. The heart of the law consists of the transposition of a European law on media freedom that the PP supported in Brussels. For this reason, Sánchez insists that the opposition should support this initiative in Congress, although the PP rejects it outright and accuses the Government of trying to “control the media”. The purpose of the European law is to safeguard the media to prevent them from being used for political purposes.
The Council of Ministers will approve regulations to require all media to disclose their ownership structure and will amend the law on institutional advertising to make it more transparent and prevent some governments, especially regional or local ones, from financing very small media that have few readers and obtain their main income from public funds. The president also announced that media that spread hoaxes will not receive public money, but this part seems very complex to put into law.
On this point of disinformation there is also a dispute between the PSOE and Sumar. Yolanda Díaz’s group insists on establishing an independent audiovisual council for the whole of Spain, similar to those already operating in Catalonia and Andalusia, to be used by the professionals themselves to denounce bad journalistic practices. This is something common in the EU and the European law on media freedom itself points to such a solution. Other groups that support the Government such as ERC have also proposed it. But in Spain this issue is very controversial and in some sectors, especially conservative ones, they describe it as a new form of censorship. The socialists prefer a less controversial formula.
PSOE and Sumar have also debated internally about the possibility of including in the package the complete reform of the controversial lhey gag, which was approved by the Mariano Rajoy government in 2015. The socialists have already explained that they are only committed to including parts that have to do with freedom of expression, such as the prohibition of taking pictures of police officers during demonstrations. But they are avoiding more delicate commitments such as the prohibition of rubber bullets or the immediate return of migrants, two issues that meant that ERC and EH Bildu did not support the reform in 2023 and it fell through.
Another issue on the table was the reform of the Official Secrets Act, one of the last vestiges of Francoist legislation and an endeavour that the PNV has been pursuing for years. After being left in limbo last term, despite having been taken into consideration by the plenary session of Congress, the Basque group returned to the charge last February and managed to have it approved in parliament for the third time in recent years. Until today. Its repeal is among the requests made to the Government for the plan by other allies such as ERC or BNG. La Moncloa presented its own reform text in July 2022, which is insufficient for PNV, Sumar and other partners, because it does not automatically declassify some documents until 50 years have passed. The discussion, like all the others, remains open and will be resolved in Parliament, where the Government will have to seek support. But in the round of meetings held by Bolaños and Urtasun, it became clear that there are enough votes to approve the package because the majority groups are in basic agreement on the general lines, except for the small print.
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