Robles defends embezzlement reform for independentistas: The Penal Code is not there to solve political problems

He assures that the PSOE will not support "in any case" decriminalizing the "enrichment" of its own or of third parties with public funds

MADRID, 7 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, reacted this Wednesday to the fact that the Government has opened the door to a limited reform of the crime of embezzlement -for which the Supreme Court condemned the pro-independence leaders of the 'procés--, pointing out that the Criminal Code is not made to solve "political problems."

"The Criminal Code is not there to solve political problems," Robles said in an interview with Telecinco, collected by Europa Press, after yesterday the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, announced to journalists that Moncloa is willing to carry out this reform of the criminal type of embezzlement.

For Robles, a career judge, criminal law must, on the one hand, "respond to the social reality of the moment in which it is applied" and, on the other, "protect the ethical minimum." "We cannot think that problems are solved by penalizing behaviors", he has maintained.

"You may or may not agree, but Sánchez's position has been very clear and honest: it has been done since the beginning of the legislature, and we fully share it, a commitment to coexistence in Catalonia", Robles has abounded, who has insisted that political issues have to be settled "politically".

The minister has pointed out that if someone commits a crime, "obviously" they have to be "prosecuted". "And so the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court did it", he declared in reference to the trial of the 'procés', at the same time that he has said that "we must not forget" that the pro-independence leaders "have spent several years in jail". .

Given the amendment presented by ERC to reform embezzlement in the same parliamentary process with which they want to eliminate the crime of sedition, Robles has transferred that any proposal has to be "studied", although he has stressed that the PSOE has the "line red" of not supporting reforms that favor "corruption.

"In no case is the PSOE going to support any amendment that in some way favors what corruption is, what we all understand by corruption: taking advantage of it, for itself or for others; profiting from public funds," said the minister, who He has summoned us to "wait" for what the amendment says, which has not yet been presented.

He has indicated that the regulation of embezzlement in the Penal Code has changed over time and until 2015 -he added- there was a different regulation that clearly distinguished personal enrichment or that of third parties, which "everyone" understands "commonly as corruption", with respect to other behaviors.

"The Penal Code is constantly evolving", insisted Robles, who wanted to specify that with this possible reform there is no talk of "decriminalization", because "in no case will it be accepted" that one's own enrichment or third parties go unpunished .

Robles has affirmed that "the criminal reproach cannot be the same for those who enrich themselves as other actions that in no case lead to enrichment." And he has stressed that the PSOE maintains a "clear commitment to the fight against corruption."