After stepping on the accelerator to replace the crime of sedition with that of aggravated public disorder, with the proposed law to reform the Penal Code registered by the PSOE and United We Can last Friday and whose express processing now faces its first steps in Congress, Instead, the Government chooses to tread carefully before the open debate on a review of the crime of embezzlement that also affects the independence leaders prosecuted by the procés. The spokeswoman for the Executive, the socialist Isabel Rodríguez, has today insisted on avoiding this new debate on the reform of embezzlement, but has warned that in no case will it serve to weaken a fight against corruption that she has assured is a political banner of Pedro Sánchez since he arrived at Moncloa.
“A hallmark of this Government, of which we are very proud, is the fight against corruption, exemplary public life, the exercise of transparency and progress in the democratic quality of our country”, said Isabel Rodríguez . “This is a sign of identity and a flag that makes us feel very proud of the management we have carried out so far in the Government”, she stressed.
The minister spokesperson did not want to take another step on the possible reform of the crime of embezzlement, which Esquerra is expected to incorporate as an amendment during the processing of the bill that will eliminate the crime of sedition from the Penal Code due to aggravated public disorder . Isabel Rodríguez has thus clung to limiting the homologation of the crime of sedition to the legal system of the European environment as the only “commitment” that the Executive assumes in this regard.
“We are not evaluating any other initiative,” said the spokeswoman. At least for now. Because Isabel Rodríguez has also admitted that this position of the Executive “is not incompatible” with other parliamentary groups, as Esquerra intends to do, presenting amendments during the parliamentary process of the reform of the Penal Code so that a review of the crime of embezzlement is also incorporated . “We have already fulfilled our commitment”, she has settled in this regard.
The spokeswoman for the Executive has also replied to the harsh offensive unleashed by the right in the face of an ongoing reform of the Penal Code that they consider will be made “tailor-made” for the prosecuted independence leaders. Isabel Rodríguez has thus argued that Spain is “infinitely better” now than in 2017, when an illegal self-determination referendum was held in Catalonia and a unilateral declaration of independence was proclaimed. Instead, the minister celebrated the recovery of political and institutional normality in Catalonia. “From politics and thanks to dialogue, we have ended a conflict”, she has assured. “Spain today is stronger and more united”, she highlighted. And this despite the fact that “some and other extremes”, she has pointed out in reference to the Spanish right and the most disruptive Catalan independence movement, prefer to remain installed “in the confrontation”.
