The Plenary Session of the Senate has definitively approved this Thursday the reform of the Law of only yes is yes promoted by the PSOE to avoid the reductions in sentences and releases of sexual offenders that were taking place since the entry into force of the norm in October of 2022.
The initiative has had the votes in favor of PSOE, PP, PNV, Ciudadanos, Unión del Pueblo Navarro and the independent Ruyh Goñi; the abstention of Junts; and the votes against ERC, Bildu, Más Madrid and Mes per Mallorca. Vox, as it already did in Congress, has decided not to vote. After knowing the result, the popular senators have celebrated it by getting up to applaud their president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has remained seated in his seat.
As no modification has been incorporated in the text in relation to the one that came out of Congress, the norm should not return to the Lower House, so, after the result of this Wednesday, it will enter into force one day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the State (BOE).
In the new text, it modifies, mainly, the range of penalties for sexual assault with violence and intimidation of the Law of the only yes is yes, so that this crime increases its punishment by up to two years in prison, with respect to the one currently in force. This is because this text returns to the range of penalties, from one to five years, that were included for sexual assaults in the Penal Code in 2010.
The PSOE proposal maintains the wording of the first two points drafted by Equality, which state that “it will only be understood that there is consent when it has been freely expressed through acts that, in view of the circumstances of the case, clearly express the will of the person” and that “in any case, sexual assault is considered to be acts of sexual content that are carried out using violence, intimidation or abuse of a situation of superiority or vulnerability of the victim, as well as those that are carried out on people who are deprived of sense or whose mental situation is being abused and those carried out when the victim has been canceled for any reason”.
But it does include a new third point to state that “if the attack was committed using violence or intimidation or against a victim whose will has been annulled for any reason, the person responsible will be punished with one to five years in prison.”
This text also focuses on violence in order to modify article 179. If the Law of only yes is yes includes a sentence of four to twelve years for penetrative attacks (rape), the reform proposal seeks to add that in In the event that this violation includes violence and intimidation, this range of penalties is from 6 to 12 years, as in 2010.
In the case of aggravating circumstances, this text also returns to the Penal Code prior to the Law of the only yes is yes, although adapting to the proposal that it now makes when distinguishing sexual assaults with or without violence. Thus, it maintains the Equality ranges – from 2 to 8 years and from 7 to 15 years, in cases of sexual assault with or without penetration, respectively – and recovers the existing ranges in the Penal Code prior to ‘only if it is yes’, from 5 to 10 years and from 12 to 15 years, for the new subtypes that he now proposes: violent sexual assaults, with or without penetration.
During the debate on the reform, in which the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, was not present, the PSOE has emphasized that this modification concerns a very specific aspect of the text, criminal law, since the rest of the norm is “good”. Its spokesman for Justice, José MarÃa Oleaga, has pointed out that this procedure was necessary to “avoid humiliation” of the women, because “consent is not touched” and because the PSOE “is the only one that has rolled up its sleeves and has presented a reliable proposal” to solve the problems it presented.
However, the Socialists have been the target of criticism during the debate. From ERC they have reproached her for negotiating with a party that has not supported advances in women’s rights in its history. “They have entered fully into the framework of the right,” said the representative of the pro-independence party, Sara Bailac. In her speech, she pointed out that the PSOE’s position on this issue is conditioned by the polls and the upcoming elections on May 28.
From Bildu, his spokesman in this debate, Idurre Bidaguren, has lamented that the “paradigm shift” that the Law of ‘only yes is yes’ does not “fit with the old mentality” that “more time in jail is better “against the aggressors when there are more” the aggressors who have not set foot in court. In addition, he has asked the PSOE if it is sure that this reform will not continue to mean discounts for these criminals.
While her Junts counterpart, MarÃa Teresa Rivero, has criticized the “rush” of the PSOE for correcting this text in an electoral context and bad polls with a proposal that, in her opinion, moves away from the norm “of purpose” with which It was approved. And in this sense, she has recognized that this issue has been “legislated badly and quickly” for being “slaves to haste.”
The spokesman for Geroa Bai, Koldo MartÃnez, has expressed himself in a similar way, who has denounced that the objective of the policy is being made “of contention” and has warned: “we make mistakes when we legislate in a hurry, and we make mistakes when we hastily modify the laws legislated in a hurry”. “We make mistakes when we approve laws or vote against them thinking, not about their effect on society, but about their effect at the polls”, he added. Also the senator of Mes for Mallorca, VicenÇ Vidal , considers that the processing “in two seconds” of this reform implies a lack of respect for the Upper House.
On the other hand, the PP, through its spokesperson for Equality in the Senate, Patricia RodrÃguez, has claimed its place in this reform, stressing that its vote in favor of this initiative is “because it is good for women.” “And that is the only thing that matters to us,” she has declared.
PNV senator Imanol Landa has also been in favor of the reform, who has pointed out the need to “react” to the alarm situation caused by the reductions in sentences for sexual offenders. As he has pointed out, the socialist proposal “is not going to undo what was done” but “deserves a positive assessment” in terms of the criminal part that it includes and that, in his opinion, “respects what is essential in the field of consent”.
Ciudadanos, Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) and independent senator Ruth Goñi, have been very critical of the Executive. The ‘orange’ Miguel Sánchez, has regretted that he is blaming the judges for the situation and has called to “apologize” for the situation generated; while the Navarrese senator Alberto Catalán has criticized that this initiative has been processed with the same “lack of rigor and reports” as the ‘only yes is yes’ Law. Goñi, for her part, has criticized that the PSOE has taken 7 months to modify this “shameful” rule.
Finally, the Vox spokesperson in this debate, Yolanda Merelo, considers that this initiative supposes the “laundering of the legal botch” of the ‘only yes is yes’.
