Podemos does not yet guarantee support to reform embezzlement until it ensures that it does not benefit the corrupt

Asens affirms that the "music sounds good" and Echenique shows willingness to agree, and both rule out that it has an effect on Griñán

MADRID, 9 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Unidas Podemos still does not guarantee support for the ERC amendment to reform the crime of embezzlement, which it is going to study in detail, although it acknowledges that "music sounds good to it" and there is a predisposition to reach an agreement. Of course, its red line is that no change benefits those convicted or investigated for crimes of political corruption.

They have also ruled out that the ERC approach, through its amendment, has positive effects on the former Andalusian president José Antonio Griñán, convicted of the ERE plot, although they want to make sure that the text cannot provide any help to those investigated in cases such as Kitchen, Lezo, Gürtel or Púnica. Of course, the 'commons' admit that they see fit to differentiate between personal enrichment and unfair administration of public resources.

This has been indicated by the president of the confederal group, Jaume Asens, and his parliamentary spokesman, Pablo Echenique, in separate press conferences to assess the amendments to the non-legal proposal to repeal the crime of sedition, and which entail other changes in The criminal code.

The Republicans have already advanced that they are proposing to create a new type within the crime of embezzlement to punish those who embezzle public money but without personal gain, with a sentence of between 6 months and 3 years with less prison, something that they justify to prevent this type of crime from being used arbitrarily against the independence movement.

In this sense, Asens has indicated that they are going to analyze "in depth" the implications of this proposal, always from the point of view that a review of embezzlement "cannot be carte blanche" to give "impunity to the corrupt."

In this way, he has reiterated, as the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, recently made explicit, that his space was not going to propose amendments in this regard and would limit themselves to studying the ERC approach, and pondering whether they support it.

And it is that they are aware that it is a "delicate" matter, as the co-spokesperson of the purple party, Isa Serra, recently stated in an interview with Europa Press, and consequently they will be "vigilant" so that "through the back door" there are corrupt that they see their sorrows attenuated.

Of course, the also leader of En Comú Podem has stressed that, as the Republicans expose, the reform that the PP made in 2015 was a "botch" that oriented embezzlement to "pursue independence and not corruption."

Therefore, he has opined that it would be positive to differentiate between illicit enrichment from other cases such as inappropriate use of public resources, which would enter the field of unfair administration and should entail, from the punitive point of view, a differentiation with less penalty compared to "putting the hand in the common treasury", which is the assumption that the majority of society associates with corruption.

After indicating that they are not negotiating "neither before nor now with ERC" in this matter, a function that the PSOE has assumed, he has admitted that the "music" of the Republican approach "sounds good" to him, since it is logical to distinguish the illicit enrichment of other phenomena.

"The predisposition is positive and with the intention of reaching an agreement with ERC", Asens stressed to point out, asked if the Kitchen case would be affected, that the definition of corruption is complex and translating the different differentiations is what must be argue. Of course, he has indicated that appropriating public funds should have a different consideration from other cases.

However, he has stressed that if they dislike the ERC amendment, they are willing to compromise to reach an agreement. He has also opined, like Echenique, that the terms that they have known of the amendment of the republican group would not benefit Griñán, since there would be an enrichment of third parties through a network of patronage.

Meanwhile, Echenique has detailed that they have already put their legal services to work regarding these proposals and has assured that they will not be able to support this amendment if there are positive effects for defendants in cases such as Gürtel, Lezo, Púnica or Kitchen.

"We are willing to support ERC as long as it does not benefit those accused and convicted of corruption," he emphasized to express, however, that he thinks that the Republicans' approach is not in that line. Consequently, they have until Monday, when the paper meets, to "carefully" evaluate the legal consequences of the embezzlement reform.