The Government and its parliamentary partners have taken the first step to reform the gag lawa pending task from the previous legislature. With the support of the majority of the investiture and the rejection of the PP, Vox and UPN, the Congress of Deputies has approved taking into consideration the reform of the citizen security law. The bill includes three issues agreed between the PSOE, Add and EH Bildu at the beginning of October: the prohibition of rubber balls as riot control equipment and the forced returns of migrants, and the regulation of disrespect for authority. Its consideration has been approved by 176 votes in favor and 170 against.
These were the issues that stopped the processing of the gag law reform in the last legislature, given that the Executive and its parliamentary partners maintained a consensus on the rest of the law. Its skeleton is made up of measures to reduce the margin of arbitrariness of the State security forces and bodies when carrying out their duties, as well as to reduce the amount of fines and make them progressive according to the level of income, and also to soften—and, in some cases, eliminate—the punishment for behaviors that are punished severely. in the current standard.
The deputies who spoke this Tuesday from the speakers’ gallery have staged a confrontation of blocks throughout the entire debate on the gag law. Already at the beginning of the plenary session, the socialist deputy David Serrada announced this climate of confrontation: “Today we expect very little from the right“I’m sure that the brotherhood of the holy reproach will parade through this platform for their hoaxes.”
Serrada wanted to defend the reform of the citizen security law based on “the arguments of the right.” “If you say that we live in a dictatorship, Why are we going to maintain a law that legitimizes it by restricting the freedoms of citizens? If they say that we live in chaos and insecurity, why maintain a law that is incapable of solving it? “If they say that they trust the European institutions, why maintain a law on which the Venice Commission has already ruled negatively?” said the deputy.
But he People’s Party maintains its offensive, which has been carried out by the spokesman Miguel Tellado. According to what the PP deputy said, this Tuesday’s vote is “the umpteenth example that certifies that we are facing a Government completely exhausted and rotten; a Government that lacks initiative and political action, which rents itself to the highest bidder to remain in power.” Developing this first argument, Tellado has reviewed the “tolls” of Sánchez’s Executive to his parliamentary partners.
He has cited the amnesty negotiated with Junts, the “separatist quota” negotiated with ERC, the transfer of the mayor’s office of Pamplona to Bildu, the negotiation of the democratic memory law and the legal reform that will commute the sentences imposed on ETA members in France. Once this list was finished, Tellado announced that “now Bildu is once again the one who demands his most appetizing prizelowering the protection of a group that has always been in its sights.” A prize that is awarded in exchange for support for the General State Budgets, Tellado has stressed.
Here is the main argument of the PP against the reform of the gag law: “The Government knows that it will mean a greater risk for agents of the State Security Forces and Bodiesbut he doesn’t care. “Above the agents and their physical integrity, what matters to them is continuing in their positions.”
Argument to which it adheres Voxif possible with more impetus than the PP. This Tuesday, deputy Ignacio Hoces reproached the Government for putting citizen security “in the hands of the heirs of terrorism.” And he has assured that “the ‘citizen insecurity law’ abandons the State Security Forces and Bodies to their fate.”
On the other hand, Enrique Santiago, deputy of Addreforming the gag law seems “a democratic urgency”. In response to Hoces’ speech, which has anticipated times of “crime and degradation”, Santiago has highlighted that “Spain is a safe, calm country with no public order problems.” Therefore, he has claimed the “need to expand citizens’ rights” and the “wide margin” to do so “without compromising the security or the work of the Police.” The Sumar deputy concluded his speech by referring to a United Nations guideline: “Police intervention should always tend to be dissuasive and restorative as far as possible.”
Protests may be held without prior notice
One of the changes introduced by the bill is the possibility of holding protests without prior communication, something that is currently punishable by fines of between 100 and 600 euros. On the other hand, an article is modified that allows the organizers of a demonstration to be fined if disturbances occur during the march. It is also suppressdirectly, another of the most controversial points of the gag law: which considers demonstrations that cause “serious disturbance of citizen security” in front of the Congress of Deputies, the Senate or the regional legislative assemblies to be a serious infraction – with a fine of up to 30,000 euros.
On the other hand, penalties are considerably reduced for minor offenses (between 100 and 500 euros, instead of 600) and serious offenses (between 500 and 25,0000 euros, previously up to 30,000). Therefore, the financial penalty for possession of narcotic substances such as cannabis will be softened, which is now 600 euros and can now be reduced to 100. In addition, the negotiated reform establishes that the fines have a progressive amount, which would be different depending on of the sanctioned person’s income.
The reform that is now being resumed also includes the reduction to a maximum of two hours – right now it is six – the time it can take for the police to identify a person, except for exceptional reasons.
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