Government partners are approaching an agreement on 'gag law' in the face of suspicion from police unions

It remains to be agreed, among other issues, the use of rubber balls and the articles on disobedience and disrespect for agents

MADRID, 26 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The government's partners are facing the end of the reform of the Organic Law for the Protection of Citizen Security, known as the 'gag law' by its detractors, despite the misgivings -in addition to the opposition- of the main police unions, which do not They rule out calling another demonstration as they already did in action unit in November 2021.

United We Can, one of the parties that is part of the Government, is optimistic after the meeting of the presentation on December 21 about the possibility of fulfilling its promise to reform this legislature the norm approved in 2015 by the absolute majority of the PP.

The forecast is to continue working in January and there is still no date for the new Citizen Security Law to be submitted to the Interior Commission, a previous step for its approval in the plenary session of Congress.

However, 'red lines' persist due to the resignation of the PSOE to stop using rubber bullets as riot police material, as well as sanctioning disrespect to agents and dispensing with rejections of migrants at the border, an issue this The latter has been brought back to the fore with criticism of the management of the Ministry of the Interior after the tragedy in Melilla on June 24.

EH Bildu and other members of the Executive acknowledge that they have run aground on articles such as disobedience (36.6) or lack of respect (37.4), recalling that they are the ones that motivate the most sanctions by the Security Forces thanks to the 'gag law' '.

Parliamentary sources stress that consensus can be reached if "elements are established to objectify these sanctions, avoiding unfair situations." They also recognize points of disagreement in the responsibility of the demonstrations when it comes to dealing with possible infractions.

In the last closed-door meeting of the presentation, the government partners agreed to graduate the sanctions depending on whether they affect minors and taking into account economic capacity. The Citizen Security Law in force already contemplates the graduation of sanctions (article 33) with mention of "the economic capacity of the offender", but now "the minority of the offender" is included.

In addition, this article is developed to establish downward adjustments in the fines to reduce them by 50% for those who receive a salary of up to 1.5 times the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI) and 25% if it is between 1.5 and 2.5 times the SMI.

In order to attend to "personal, family and social circumstances", the agreed article contemplates the possibility of reducing the fine and even suspending it depending on whether there is an act of conciliation between the author and the offended persons, as well as a reparative activity, especially in those cases in which the sanctioned person is a minor.

As explained by the speaker of Unidas Podemos, Enrique Santiago, it is about generalizing a model that already applied to minors and has generated a "great agreement" so that, from the approval of the law, it can be used in "all cases of infringements that affect public or private property" provided that there is a clear desire for conciliation between the parties.

In addition, it has been agreed - taking into account a Constitutional Court ruling - the reduction of some sanctions and, in the words of Santiago, the "non-penalization" of the dissemination of images of protests or activities of the Security Forces. Textually, the incorporated amendment establishes that "the mere taking of images in places of public transit and demonstrations or their mere dissemination will not constitute an infraction."

Of course, the use of "images or personal or professional data of the authorities or agents" is included as a caveat when it generates a "certain danger" for their "personal or family safety, that of protected facilities" or the risk of an operation . That "certain danger or risk" must "be verifiable and be reasonedly reflected in the record or complaint, in as much detail as possible."

In the discreet meetings of the members of the Executive there have already been advances in articles such as the one that reduces the fines for the consumption or possession of drugs on the street. They also negotiated on the veracity of the police in the minutes on proposed sanctions, claiming from now on that the account of the facts be "coherent, logical and reasonable, unless proven otherwise."

On the initial proposal of the PNV, there is also an agreement between the partners of the Government to stop punishing the call and celebration of peaceful concentrations in the surroundings of parliamentary chambers, as well as to modify article 20, which regulates body searches to "reduce to minimum" nudity and prevent it from being carried out in public.

The spokeswoman for the Interior of the PP, Ana Vázquez, sees it as suspicious that the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, "cede the security of the State Security Forces and Corps to save his political head." In her opinion, if the agreed text is approved, it would leave the agents "disarmed". "It is an ideological reform to support the criminal; a law for when they are in opposition," she pointed out.

The majority of police unions are suspicious that they have not been consulted to modify a law that affects their performance, something that they already raised a year ago when they called a massive demonstration in Madrid.

The police organizations then created a platform, 'No to insecure Spain', which they do not rule out reactivating once the new organic law is definitively approved if it includes "nonsense" such as allowing the dissemination of images of police officers "at discretion" --encouraging the harassment against them or their families-- or if "the presumption of veracity of police reports is withdrawn."