The PSOE insists on decriminalizing insults to the Crown and will reject in Congress the proposals of PP, Vox and Cs

Those of Abascal defend raising the sentences up to three years in prison, the PP leaves it the same and the 'oranges' reduce them to a fine

MADRID, 27 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PSOE maintains its intention to decriminalize insults from the Crown and outrages against national symbols, and this Thursday it will reject in the plenary session of Congress the amendments presented by the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos to try to stop a Senate bill on this affair.

This was announced this Tuesday by the spokesman for the PSOE in Congress, Patxi López: "We are going to vote in favor of adapting our Criminal Code in terms of insults to what Europe has asked us for a long time", he settled at a press conference .

Congress will hold a first debate this Thursday on a bill proposed by ERC and Bildu that was taken into consideration by the Senate Plenary on May 25 thanks to the votes of PSOE, PNV, Izquierda Confederal and Junts. Although the socialists made a very critical intervention, accusing ERC and Bildu of "advantage", in the end they ended up supporting it to go ahead.

The initiative was sent to Congress where a term was opened for the presentation of amendments to the entirety, which required an alternative text since it is no longer possible to request only the return, since it is a text taken into consideration by the Senate.

And this Thursday those amendments, registered by the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos, will be debated and voted on. Specifically, the 'popular' want to leave these crimes as they are, Vox defends raising the penalties and the orange formation, on the contrary, leaving them in a fine.

In its proposal, collected by Europa Press, the PP advocates keeping articles 490.3, 491 and 543 of the Penal Code as they are, the elimination of which is proposed in the initiative accepted by the Senate.

Currently 490.3 establishes that whoever slanders or insults "the King, the Queen or any of their ascendants or descendants, the Queen consort or the Queen's consort, the Regent or any member of the Regency, or the Prince or Princess of Asturias, in the exercise of their functions or on the occasion or occasion thereof", will be punished with a prison sentence of six months to two years "if the slander or insult were serious", and with a fine of six to twelve months if they are not.

For its part, Vox takes advantage of its alternative text, to which Europa Press has had access, to propose an increase in the penalties provided for in the articles that the initiative accepted by the Senate seeks to make disappear. Specifically, it defends that if the insults or slander provided for in 490.3 are serious, the punishment ranges between one and three years in prison and that the fines range from 12 to 24 months.

Those of Santiago Abascal also ask to retouch article 491 so that slander and insults against the people who make up the Crown that are not carried out in the exercise of their functions or because of them are punished with a fine of between six and 24 months, against to the current range of four to 20 months.

At the same time, they also request that the fine of six to 24 months that now applies to whoever uses the image of these people "in any way that could damage the prestige of the Crown" be raised to another of 12 to 30 months.

Likewise, Vox suggests changing article 543 of the Penal Code to punish with a fine of 12 to 24 months "offenses or outrages in words, in writing or in fact to Spain, its autonomous communities or its symbols or emblems", provided they are "made with advertising".

It has also registered an alternative text Citizens, in its case to modify only article 490 so that slander or insults to the King or his family cease to be punished with jail and only receive fines of 12 to 24 months if the slander is serious or six to twelve months if it is not.