The reform of the gag law agreed with EH Bildu reaches Congress with the notice from Podemos and Junts that there will be amendments

Can and Together for Catalonia will allow, except for last minute changes, the admission for processing of the gag law reform agreed upon by him Socialist party (PSOE) and EH Bildu. They will do it with a pinch of salt, every time they find deficits in the agreed terms. That is why they condition their eventual final vote on their conditions being accepted in the amendments phase. The registration of the reform in Congress is not only the responsibility of the abertzalesbut they also sign it Republican Left (ERC), Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG).

This is a pending account from the last legislature, when precisely EH Bildu and ERC overturned the reform of the citizen security law for not including the ban on rubber balls and the hot returns. These two points are the basis for the agreement reached by those of Mertxe Aizpurua and the Socialist Party at the beginning of October, in addition to a modification of the sanctions for lack of respect for authority and disobedience. In short, the four issues that frustrated the reform from going ahead on the first attempt.

This is one of the few times in the current legislature in which a high-caliber initiative comes to consideration with a some slack. A priori, there are no risks that the reform will not advance this Tuesday in the Lower House. Of course, both the demands of Junts per Catalunya and those of Podemos predict some complex negotiations once the admission for processing of the standard has been passed.

Podemos sources assure Public that his vote will be favorable, but that from there, as his organization secretary has also specified, Pablo Fernandezat the press conference this Monday, we will have to talk.

There are two things that worry the purple ones. On the one hand, regarding the rubber ballsan issue that, on the other hand, is not regulated by the citizen security law, but that has been included in this negotiation from the first moment. In Podemos they believe that the new wording of the law, which plans to replace these balls with “less harmful materials“, lacks a clear and established schedule that allows us to control whether the law is complied with or not, in case it eventually goes ahead. Some EH Bildu figures have explained that the Government will announce a schedule in that sense.

Podemos also distrusts what was agreed by socialists and abertzales in terms of hot returns. In this case, the new text includes an additional provision so that, within a period of six months, the a reform of the immigration law that establishes as criteria for the modification “the respect and application of the Human Rights regulations and international protection, establishing access and evaluation of requests for international protection prior to the possible expulsion process.”

Podemos sources slip that it is not in their plans to entrust the prohibition of hot returns to a subsequent reform of the immigration law. They want more guarantees. Those of Ione Belarra rule out that their vote makes it difficult to take the reform into consideration and consider that it is positive that its parliamentary processing is activated. However, they will withdraw their support if the conditions listed above are not accepted.

Junts, a reform from the Catalan perspective

Sources from Junts, for their part, did not want to reveal the meaning of their vote when asked by this media, but from the statements they made Miriam Noguerasher parliamentary spokesperson and recently appointed first vice president of the party – therefore, one of the most important figures for Carles Puigdemont -, it is inferred that at the very least they will allow it to be taken into consideration, given that she expressed the will of her group of amend the law once the processing begins.

Little is known about the details of the modifications that Junts will propose. Nogueras insisted before the media that what his group pursues is “a total repeal” of Rajoy’s law, which they consider “regressive”.

In addition, he also specified that his objective is to achieve “a citizen security law for Catalonia“, without going into the details. In any case, he states that they avoided including his signature in the registry of the initiative so as not to lose negotiating power. Like Podemos, his “yes” to taking it into consideration is critical initial support .

The reform of the gag law, however, will surpass the admission for processing this Tuesday and will once again be placed at the forefront of the parliamentary debate one of the main complaints on the left in recent years. It will do so at a particularly difficult time for Add, Can and More Madrid. The three formations are immersed in the cataclysm that arose after the resignation of Íñigo Errejón for accusations of sexist violence. The plenary session that begins this Tuesday is the first since Errejón published his resignation letter on the social network X.