ERC announces surgical amendments to reform embezzlement and prevent independence from being "repressed"

They will be surgical amendments to close the door to accusations "to repress" the independence movement

   BARCELONA, 7 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The deputy secretary general and spokesperson for ERC, Marta Vilalta, announced this Wednesday that her party will present amendments to reform the crime of embezzlement, within the framework of the modification of the Penal Code to repeal sedition, so that it is not " used to repress and persecute the independence movement and political dissidence".

In an interview with Europa Press, he stated that in the next "days or hours" they will specify when they will present it -they have until Friday-, after the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, opened this Tuesday to reduce the penalties for embezzlement as long as it does not benefit the corrupt.

Vilalta has advanced that ERC will propose surgical modifications to minimize the interpretative margin of the new text and ensure that it is applied in accordance with the objective of the reform, which is "that false accusations of embezzlement cannot be used to persecute, disable and repress" the independence.

Asked if they trust that PSOE and Unidas Podemos support the embezzlement amendment, she has assured that they are negotiating to achieve sufficient majorities and that the reform prosper: "We will see in the coming days and weeks what the evolution is. The vocation is to find these majorities and to be able to definitively approve a reform of the Penal Code that began with the elimination of the crime of sedition, which was a very important step".

Vilalta has also opened up to studying the amendments presented by the groups on the new crime of aggravated public disorder --the communes have already announced that they will do so-- to introduce any "improvement" in the wording of the PSOE bill and United We Can.

As he has argued, the wording of public disorder in this bill is not what ERC would have done on its own, but they do believe that it improves the classification of this crime, "as long as penalties are lowered and the criteria or the application requirements.

Both the Government and the central Executive frame these reforms in the agreements reached at the dialogue table, and for the moment ERC has not specified whether the embezzlement reform will seek to recover the criminalization of this crime prior to 2015, when the PP government promoted changes in its wording, as suggested a few weeks ago by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès.

Regarding the ANC demonstration this Tuesday against the reform, Vilalta has refused to assess the criticism of ERC in the protest and has maintained that "the ANC is probably the wrong adversary" placing the Generalitat as the target of criticism instead of direct them to join efforts against the State, in his words.

He also sees "a point" of electoralism in Junts' criticism of the Government in the framework of this demonstration, and has verbatimly vindicated ERC's commitment to negotiate and be useful both in the Congress of Deputies and from the Government.

"It is what we will continue to do despite the criticism that sometimes it is very comfortable to do from a distance, from not having to roll up our sleeves. We have decided to do something else. In this case, it is to roll up our sleeves and, therefore, be useful and try to build agreements that we believe are beneficial for citizens and for progress on the path towards the Catalan republic", he said.

The Republican leader has maintained that the accusations of embezzlement were used to "repress" the pro-independence leaders convicted of 1-O, and added that the reform of the Penal Code improves their situation because it gives the State fewer tools, in the absence of a amnesty.

"What we want is amnesty, it is what it would entail in some way and would produce the effects that the repression would end 'de facto' and we would not have exiles or politicians pending trial or accused. Since it is not possible, we will try to do steps such as the reform of the Criminal Code, the improvement of some of the articles of the Criminal Code and progress in this dejudicialization", he added.

He has "absolutely" ruled out that the reform of the Criminal Code could facilitate the extradition of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, in Belgium, and has defended that, precisely, this legislative modification should make it more difficult, in his words, the extradition by the Belgian authorities.

On whether it can also promote the return from Switzerland of the ERC general secretary, Marta Rovira, or that the ERC president, Oriol Junqueras, run for elections again, Vilalta has assured that the effects of the reform will be seen and has stressed that both leaders are a "political asset" for ERC.

"Hopefully the exiles can return as soon as possible because it is what we want, that there are no more exiles or that there are more people pending trial or more disqualifications," he added.