The Socialists undertake to open this debate in the subcommission for electoral reform, as they have agreed with United We Can
MADRID, 27 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -
PSOE, PP, Vox, Ciudadanos, PNV, Foro Asturias and Navarra Suma have rejected this Tuesday that Congress process an ERC initiative to change the Electoral Law with the aim of lowering the voting age to 16, an idea that yes has supported the minority partner of the Government, United We Can, together with Bildu, Junts, the CUP and Compromís.
The person in charge of defending the initiative has been the ERC deputy Marta Rosique, who has branded as "reactionaries" those who oppose a reform that, in her opinion, would serve to "promote political participation, place youth at the center of the political agenda and equate rights and duties".
Rosique has directly challenged the PSOE, recalling that they already voted in favor of this matter in the Catalan Parliament in 2013, in Congress itself in 2016, that the opening of this debate is part of the Government pact that they signed in 2019 with United We Can and that It is also a demand of the Socialist Youth and the Spanish Youth Council, among others.
Likewise, he recalled that from the age of 16 it is already mandatory to pay taxes, you can work, give consent for medical treatment or get married and that the right to active suffrage can already be exercised from that age in places like Austria, Brazil, Ecuador, Hungary, Slovenia, Norway, Argentina, some German states and the Swiss canton of Glarus.
The PSC deputy José Zaragoza, has admitted that the PSOE has agreed with United We Can open this debate and has guaranteed that it will be done, but in the subcommittee that the Constitutional Commission of Congress has open to study possible changes in the electoral law.
He also recalled that Catalonia is the only community that does not have its own electoral law and that it was precisely Junts and ERC that prevented an agreement when this matter was dealt with in Parliament at the request of the CUP. "Now they are more busy fighting with Junts than legislating," he pointed out, rejecting "democracy lessons" from ERC and accusing them of "electoralism."
The 'popular' José Antonio Bermúdez de Castro has defended that one cannot "separate the right to vote from the age of majority", which is when legally one is "in full use of political rights, and has lamented that the ERC, which does not This issue has been raised in the electoral subcommittee in order to open a "serene" debate on the matter.
Mikel Legarda, from the PNV, has expressed himself in similar terms, pointing out that the house cannot be started "from the roof" since a change of this type must arise as the result of "a great political and social pact" as was done in Austria. Legarda has made it clear that the PNV is willing to open this debate, but has referred it to the subcommission for the reform of current legislation.
On behalf of Vox, José María Figaredo has accused the left "underage at least in the mental sense of the word" of using the "decoy" of lowering the voting age to "deceive" young people. "They prevent them from forming a family and they prevent them from working because they close the industry, they want a manipulated, manipulable, submissive, silent and silent youth," he has denounced.
The deputy spokesman for Ciudadanos, Edmundo Bal, has advanced his rejection of the procedure and has taken the opportunity to once again defend the electoral reform proposed by his formation so that the votes of citizens are worth the same regardless of the constituency
From the Asturias Forum, Isidro Martínez Oblanca has accused the ERC of wanting to "alter the rules of the game" for mere "electoral interest", while Carlos García Adanero, from Navarra Suma, has warned that one can never take for granted who people are going to vote when the polls open.
For her part, the deputy of Podemos Lucía Muñoz Dalda has defended lowering the voting age for "democratic health". "Almost a million people cannot be deprived of the right to political participation," he asserted, stressing that "young people must be counted on" and guaranteed that "politics works for and changes things," warning that " those who want to destroy it slip through the cracks left by democracy".
The representatives of Junts, Mariona Illamola; from the CUP, Albert Botran; from the BNG, Nestor Rego; and from Compromís, Joan Baldoví, who underlined that in countries where people already vote at 16, it has been proven that the "political involvement" of young people is increasing.
The same has been done by Jon Iñarritu, from Bildu, who has also criticized the PSOE for its refusal to support this reform now and has bet a meal that the initiative will not be approved either in the subcommittee for electoral reform.