Sánchez rules out reforming the law of ‘only yes is yes’ as suggested by the PSOE

The deputy secretary general of the PSOE and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, opened the door yesterday to a modification of the law of “only yes is yes” after several courts have already reduced the sentences for sexual offenders of minors after demanding their defense attorneys to apply the new rule. Less than 24 hours later, from Bali, after participating in the G-20 meeting, Pedro Sánchez closed it completely.

The Chief Executive rejected the interpretation made by United We Can by the Government delegate against gender violence, Judge Vicky Rosell, that the responsibility for this reduction in sentences (of which the General Council of the Judiciary already warned in its report on the law) is exclusively from judges and a “bad application” of the legal text. But he defended that the answer to the problem is now neither Moncloa nor in Congress.

«The will of the executive and legislative powers with this law, which is also a great achievement of the feminist movement, was to reinforce the security of women. And what has been done -she reminded her- is to identify any type of sexual crime as assault so that there are more aggravated penalties; that was the will». «Now it is up to the courts and the Prosecutor’s Office to unify that doctrine. Let’s wait to draw conclusions. We have to let the judiciary work,” she added.

Modifying the sexual freedom law after it is already in force offers a problem to the matter that is intended to be addressed, as Rosell also pointed out on Tuesday night on RNE to reply to the number two of the PSOe. And it is that in criminal law the most favorable legislation to the prisoner is always applied, so that, she warned, a legislative reform would not work in this case. “A law that goes back to tax penalties does not solve anything,” he insisted.