Unlike the constitutions of Italy or Germany, which, after the experience of fascism, demand citizen commitment to the principles and values ??enshrined in the Magna Carta, the Spanish one is not a militant Constitution, which is why the PP he had to clarify yesterday, the day after including it in the amendment to the entirety of the amnesty law, his proposal to create a criminal type for constitutional disloyalty.
“You cannot persecute anyone for their ideas, but you can persecute them for their actions if they are criminal”, argued the spokesperson of the PP in Congress, Miguel Tellado, before a meeting of the board of directors of the popular parliamentary group to prepare the activity in January, which will begin with the request for the appearance of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to respond to the migratory crisis in the Canary Islands.
After citing as a principle of authority the Supreme Court, which warned of the lack of protection of the rule of law following the repeal of the crime of sedition and the “cheapening” of embezzlement in the past legislature, Tellado hastened to circumscribe the reform of the Penal Code proposed by the PP to “territorial challenge”, which would be limited, as he said, to punishing incitement to disobey the laws, the calling of illegal referendums or declarations of independence.
These “unreasonable behaviors”, affirmed the popular leader, do not mean “nothing new”, because the law already includes, since 2012, the criminal responsibility of political formations: “We have not invented anything, the parties can be condemned to dissolve with the current legal system if they commit criminal acts, as contained in article 33.7 of the Penal Code”, recalled Tellado.
What is now at stake, he continued, is to “rearm the State” in the face of the “threat” of secessionism, bearing in mind that the pro-independence parties have not only “not regretted it”, but have reiterated their will of “returning to it”, with reference to the statements of the representatives of both ERC, with the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, at the head, and Junts, led by former president Carles Puigdemont from Brussels, from ‘”open a new process” with the claim of an agreed referendum in Catalonia.
With the new criminal type proposed by the amendment in its entirety with an alternative text of the amnesty law, which will be debated, together with Vox’s, next week in Congress without, in principle, being able to go ahead, the PP aims to put an end to “attacks on the essence of the Constitution” and reintroduce the criminal cases that were eliminated with the abolition of the crime of sedition.
For this reason, Tellado hopes to have the support of the European institutions, which he sees as “concerned about the democratic quality of Spain”, and in which the not yet approved law of ‘amnesty in the face of warnings from the PP and Citizens that “attempts against the separation of powers”.
“We defend the equality of Spaniards before the law. We are all obliged to submit to the rule of law and, therefore, no party or politician can believe that they are above it”, exclaimed the PP spokesperson in front of a cloud of journalists. And, in this sense, it was asked whether the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, can allow, “by seven votes”, that there are parties outside the law. “This is a very damaged democracy”, he said.
