The Congress of Deputies has buried the reform of the gag law. The Citizen Security Law will remain intact eight years after the Popular Party approved it thanks to the absolute majority it had in 2015. After more than a year and a half of negotiations —marked by disputes between the parties of the left— the text of the reform has been knocked down with the votes of the opposition, which has been joined by ERC, EH Bildu and Junts, three of the parties that promoted its repeal. Despite in extremis conversations between the parliamentary partners to save the proposal, PSOE, Unidas Podemos and PNV have been left alone in the vote, so the reform has declined after a debate loaded with reproaches for the inability to reach consensus.
There has been no margin to overcome the four major obstacles that have separated the promoters of the reform: the use of rubber balls as riot control material, the prohibition of hot returns, fines for disrespect to agents and sanctions. for disobedience. Coinciding with the four red lines that the Ministry of the Interior had marked. For a week the groups considered the reform of the law dead and today — described as a “sad day” by the investiture allies — they have certified their death before the celebration of the Popular Party, Vox and Ciudadanos.
The pro-independence parties had already warned that they would vote against it, considering that the promised repeal —and included in the government agreement between PSOE and Unidas Podemos— had ended up becoming a light reform by not retouching aspects of the norm, at their discretion. consider, more harmful. “We cannot be accomplices”, warned the deputy of EH Bildu Jon Iñarritu during the debate. Along the same lines, the ERC spokesperson in the Interior Commission, María Dantas, has reproached the coalition partners —with special emphasis on the Socialists— for their lack of ambition: “Today the loss of a historic opportunity for the PSOE can show that it is not the same as the Popular Party”.
And they have consummated their warning. ERC, EH Bildu and Junts have voted against, adding their votes to those of the PP, Vox, Ciudadanos and UPN. 19 votes compared to 18 yeses for PSOE, Unidas Podemos and PNV. After knowing the vote, the popular deputies have broken into applause in front of the spokesmen of the parties that have failed who have hastily left the room. Outside the Congress of Deputies, the majority police unions, which had been concentrating all morning, have also celebrated that the reform has declined.
Before the vote, the debate has been marked by mutual reproaches between the parties in favor of the reform. From the PNV, its spokesman Mikel Legarda has lamented the lost opportunity. And it is that an attempt at reform had never gone so far. “Not always the postman calls twice”, he has alerted himself. The report that came out of the presentation included tweaks in 36 articles of one of the laws that is most identified with the Government of Mariano Rajoy.
