The board of spokespersons for Congress agreed yesterday to incorporate into the agenda of next week’s plenary session the consideration of the reform of the Penal Code to suppress the crime of sedition. This means that next Thursday 24, in addition to the detailed vote on the 2023 general state budget and the new taxes for banks and energy companies, the start of this express processing of the reform of the Penal Code will also be approved, which, eventually, it could also include a modification of the crime of embezzlement, although no group of the investiture majority, much less the partners of the coalition government, has anticipated their support for an amendment of Esquerra Republicana in this sense.
This means that the votes on November 24 will be the last step of the Rubicon for the Government of President Pedro Sánchez, which would guarantee the possibility of exhausting the legislature without setbacks if it manages to approve these three delicate points. The plan of the government coalition, as was made clear at the Congress table last Monday, once the consideration of the reform of the Penal Code is approved, is to approve its processing urgently, which would mean that the suppression of the crime of sedition and – eventually, if the ERC proposal convinces the Government and the rest of the groups – the adjustment of the current wording of embezzlement, could enter into force before the end of the year, as was the wish from Moncloa.
The Congress of Deputies also agreed yesterday to knock down – for the moment – ??the commission of investigation into the Melilla tragedy promoted by the usual partners of the coalition government. The PSOE and the Popular Party joined forces to stop the political investigation, in exchange for the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, explaining –again– the actions of his department during the massive jump over the fence that ended with, at least , 23 deceased immigrants. It will be on November 30 when the head of the Interior appears before the plenary session. According to the popular, he will arrive “from the ears to render accounts”, because it will not be at his own request, but after being requested by all the groups except the PNV. Despite these explanations that are demanded from the PP, his spokesperson in Congress has already slipped that they will be of little use to him. And it is that as Cuca Gamarra listed, the order that the head of the Interior must follow is the following: “provide all the information on the tragedy, rectify, acknowledge that he has lied and resign.”
