ERC admits that it is already negotiating with the PSOE on reforming embezzlement within the framework of sedition, not for corruption

MADRID, 15 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The spokesman for the Esquerra Republicana (ERC) in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, has confirmed that the abolition of the crime of sedition was negotiated "long ago" with the PSOE and that these conversations continue to touch up that of embezzlement in what refers to the use of public money for these protests, but not to corrupt practices. "That's the key and that's why you have to be surgical," he says.

At a press conference in Congress, Rufián wanted to make it clear that the suppression of the crime of sedition, which was applied to the prisoners of the Catalan independence process of 2017, is something that they had been talking about with the Government and that President Pedro Sánchez promised .

"This that is coming now comes from a long time ago, but we do not take the times, we are not the ones who take the negotiations to the last moment," Rufián said, shifting the responsibility to the PSOE.

And after the presentation of the bill to end the crime of sedition, he has slipped that these conversations are still underway, although they intend that the negotiation be "discreet, and has insisted on the need to "try to modernize" the Penal Code and put an end to some crimes that he considers "anachronistic".

"We try to be quite discreet, be wary of those who talk a lot about these negotiations," he advised. "We must try to define and limit the Penal Code to modernize it and not give rise to captious, interested or ideological interpretations by the judges. And that happens to define the crimes much better".

That is why now the negotiation refers to introducing adjustments in the crime of embezzlement of public funds, another of the crimes that supported the sentences of the prisoners of the procés. Its objective is to reduce sentences when there is no personal enrichment or a structure of corruption, and for this it advocates linking retouching to sedition, but trying not to affect the fight against corruption.

"You have to be surgical in the debate and articulation of the amendments. We understand the contradictions - he acknowledges -. It's about not using the Penal Code as an ideological punishment. That's the key, that's the balance".

ERC has already announced that it would present an amendment to touch up the embezzlement and Rufián has not wanted to give more details of the negotiation with the PSOE, which for the moment says it is open to studying it.

The pro-independence deputy has pointed out that ERC cannot change the PSOE nor is it responsible for the decisions adopted by the socialists, if anything for "their rectifications". Nor is it responsible for the interpretations that the judges may make, and in any case that is reaffirmed in the convenience of better defining the crimes.

What he did want to make clear is that between the ERC and the PSOE "there are no bridges or intermediaries", in a veiled allusion to United We Can. "There have never been bridges between the ERC and the PSOE since the investiture and whoever manifests himself as a bridge or intermediary is lying -he emphasized-. We negotiate directly, for better or for worse".