PSOE, United We Can and Citizens present a battery of modifications in Congress to the rule that came out by consensus of the Regional Assembly
PSOE, United We Can and Citizens present an important battery of amendments to the proposed reform of the Statute of Autonomy, which is being processed in the Congress of Deputies. The deadline to present initiatives ends this Wednesday. PP and Vox will not register any. The popular, because they want to maintain the consensus that came out of the Assembly. Vox, because it is totally against the text that came out in 2019 from the autonomous Chamber.
Most of the PSOE amendments are of a technical nature, eliminating or qualifying some issues that could lead to a conflict of powers with the State Administration. Thus, it is proposed to eliminate the additional provision that established that the norm would be submitted to a referendum of the citizens of the Region once its processing in the Cortes Generales was completed.
As for the amendments with more political content, the Socialists address the issue of transfuguism, proposing that the figure of the non-attached deputy be established. This would prevent, as has happened in this regional legislature, deputies expelled from the parties with which they participated in the elections from taking over the parliamentary group. This figure exists in Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Madrid, Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Cantabria or Catalonia, among other communities.
Ciudadanos has gone a little further. It proposes that those deputies who are expelled from their parties automatically go to the Mixed Group. The orange formation has had to see in this legislature how the four parliamentarians who were expelled seized their brand in the Regional Assembly, while the two who are part of the party went to the Mixed Group.
Likewise, another amendment to Cs intends to include in the Statute of Autonomy the limitation of mandates to eight years (the limit was abolished last July with the reform of the President’s Law) and to shield the Electoral Law, so that a majority is needed of two thirds of the Regional Assembly to be modified.
United We, meanwhile, presents eight amendments. One of them is aimed at recognizing the legal personality of the Mar Menor, coinciding in that sense with Ciudadanos and with the promoters of the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP), which has collected more than 600,000 signatures. It proposes an explicit condemnation of the transfuguismo in the autonomic norm and periodic consultations in the regions of the Region on the territorial model.
Sign language
The PSOE has also registered amendments to strengthen the protection of the Mar Menor, although it does not speak of legal personality. It asks to add a section to article 21 of the text so that the Autonomous Community is obliged “to promote measures that are necessary, within the competence of the regional government, for its conservation, regeneration and safeguarding.” Likewise, an amendment has been added to introduce sign language in the autonomous public administration.
The fact that the groups have tabled amendments does not mean that they will all be approved. Some, directly, will not be admitted. Now a presentation has to be made in the Constitutional Commission of Congress, with deputies from all parties, which will initiate the debate on the proposals. Some will be approved and others will not. The final text will be submitted to a vote in committee and in plenary, and then it has to go to the Senate for processing.
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