The amendments of PP, Vox, Cs, Junts and the CUP to the proposal that repeals the crime of sedition decay

The PP accuses the PSOE of wanting to favor its partners and advances that when they reach the Government they will recover sedition in the Penal Code

MADRID, 1 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Plenary Session of Congress has rejected this Thursday the five total amendments with alternative text registered by PP, Vox, Ciudadanos, Junts and the CUP to the PSOE and Podemos bill that puts an end to the crime of sedition for which the leaders of the Catalan independence process.

During the defense of the amendment to the entire PP -which has found support in Vox, Cs, Foro Asturias, Navarra Suma, the Regionalist Party of Cantabria and the Canary Islands Coalition-, the general secretary of the Popular Group, Carlos Rojas, has indicated that the socialist Executive has been portrayed because the crime of sedition only generates problems for those convicted, "the parliamentary partners of this Government", alluding to ERC. And he has warned that when the PP returns to govern, "the crime of sedition will return to the Penal Code."

Rojas makes the government ugly because it is in a hurry to repeal the crime of sedition, but not to rectify what is known as the 'only yes is yes' law, and has pointed out that this repeal is really "payment to the independence movement" because, benefiting the separatists They get your support. "His credit with the Spanish has already ended," he warned.

He has also taken the opportunity to criticize the Government appointing to the Constitutional Court the person who signed the pardons for the pro-independence supporters when he was Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo. "It is unacceptable, what guarantee of impartiality will the resources that arrive have?" He asked himself. In this sense, he has wondered if the next step will be for Sánchez to run for president of the TC.

The PP's proposal was to leave the penalties currently provided for sedition the same; adding as a crime the illegal calling of referendums --something that Rojas has recalled that the PSOE defended in the last electoral campaign--; and punish those convicted of murder who also hide the body with permanent reviewable prison.

The alternative text of Ciudadanos has been supported by Vox, Navarra Suma, Foro Asturias and Coalición Canaria, but has obtained the abstention of the PP, which has done the same before Vox's proposal, rejected by Ciudadanos.

The president of the 'orange' formation, Inés Arrimadas, has described the repeal as infamy and has assured that, with this reform, the Executive "kneels" before the independentistas who in 2017 carried out "a coup d'état".

In line, he has accused Pedro Sánchez of "delegitimizing the judges so that the separatists when they go to Europe have a little more understanding." "Sánchez is the best Minister of Foreign Action", he has come to say, adding that the Government "attacks" the Catalans and is on the wrong side of history.

In addition, Arrimadas has accused the Executive of laundering his partners and after mentioning that a Bildu deputy has been convicted of glorifying terrorism and that Arnaldo Otegi was convicted of kidnapping, he has pointed out that it is more correct than calling Sánchez's partners "filoetarras " is to qualify them as "clearly ETA members".

Ciudadanos sought with his text to raise the penalties in the event that the events of 2017 were repeated, since his idea is that those episodes can now fit into the crime of rebellion, which is more aggravated. And he also added the impossibility of the prescription running when one evades Spanish Justice, in reference to Carles Puigdemont and the rest of the ex-ministers on the run.

In defense of the Vox text, its Justice and Interior spokesman, Javier Ortega Smith, has indicated that the Government wants to repeal sedition to move forward with the Budgets, and has lamented that this favors "the fugitives" and those convicted of the process because they see their disqualification reduced.

Likewise, he considers that it will have "an effect calling for a coup d'état", for which he has advocated "throwing out of Moncloa as soon as possible whoever wants to openly hand over to Spain those who seek its destruction."

As for the other two amendments presented, that of Junts and that of the CUP, they have not received sufficient support either. That of Junts, in fact, has only received the support of the CUP, while the ERC, PDeCAT, PNV and the BNG have opted to abstain, and the rest have voted against. On its side, the CUP alternative has been endorsed by Junts, Más País, Compromís and the BNG, while ERC and Bildu have abstained.

The Junts deputy (located in the Plural Group) Josep Pagès has defended his amendment because the reform of the Government groups "is a fraud" that expands the criminalization of democratic behaviors and does not mean ending the distance that exists with European standards in this matter.

It also warns that with the reform "a new toy is given to the judges, and a free hand is given to their proven will to repress", for which reason it proposed "the pure and simple repeal of the crime of sedition", review the sentences, cancel the records criminal proceedings, dismiss proceedings and restrict the rebellion to an uprising with weapons.

The deputy of the CUP Mireia Vehi has pointed out that the reform "threatens the right to protest" and has focused on the fact that the Government responds in this way to what has been achieved by 'democratic tsunami' because the PSOE fears that civil disobedience will be the engine of change. "It seeks to de-democratize society, take power away from the people," she has sentenced.

In his turn to speak, the socialist deputy Felipe Sicilia has fundamentally answered the PP, accusing them of speaking Catalan privately when they are in government -in reference to some statements by former president Aznar- while when they are in the opposition "they use the language to face the Catalans and face the country".

In his opinion, there have always been territorial tensions, and the difference between the action of the Sánchez government and that of the right is that the latter "has never understood that the country is plural, diverse and different" so they are "incapable of managing any issue territorial". "You want to get in court what you can't get at the polls or in this chamber, that's why you don't want to change the CGPJ, because you always have it as a last resort," he said.

In addition, he has pointed out that he is certain that the PP prefers "the Catalonia of 2017" because that allows them to move "in tension and confrontation". "They have renounced doing politics in Catalonia and that is why the Catalans have renounced you", he has sentenced.

For his part, the president of the Unidas Podemos group, Jaume Asens, has charged in his speech against Vox, which he has accused of maintaining positions of its own to those defended by the Nazis, and against the PP, which he has blamed on those of Feijóo of the blockade of the CGPJ, a body in which they "entrench themselves" because they believe that power is theirs.

For her part, Carolina Telechea, from Esquerra, has celebrated that the PSOE has opted for the repeal of sedition, thus protecting freedom of expression and the right of assembly: "It has positioned itself at the end of the standards Europeans," he points out.

Of course, regarding the new crime of aggravated public disorder, he has pointed out that they will fight for it to be well defined and that therefore violence is required, and he has added that defining it means that the courts have less room to interpret the rule.

Once the amendments have been rejected in their entirety, the next step in the express processing of this reform of the Penal Code will be the presentation of the amendments to the articles on December 9, and there it will be seen if any parliamentary group is committed to taking advantage to also modify the crime of embezzlement as ERC pointed out.