In the presence of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the rest of the representatives of the powers of the State, the King sanctioned this Thursday the reform of the Constitution by which in article 49 the term “disabled” changes to “people with disabilities.” ”. The King has stamped his signature on a parchment with the new text next to that of Sánchez who had done so previously.
Once the reform has been sanctioned, the text, which was definitively approved in the Senate on January 25, has been ready for publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE), where its entry into force will be established. The change of the term was a long-awaited aspiration by different groups of people with different physical or mental disabilities, gathered in the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (Cermi), who for twenty years have been fighting to change discriminatory words for inclusive ones. .
The King is responsible for sanctioning all the laws and regulations approved by the Cortes and he does so during his usual office work but, on this occasion, since it is a constitutional reform, he wanted to give solemnity to the event that was held in the hall. Zarzuela Audiences,
That of article 49 is the third reform of the Magna Carta since its approval in 1978 and, as in the two previous constitutional reforms, it does not require a citizen referendum since there has been a parliamentary agreement. The first reform of an article of the Carta Marga took place in 1992 during the government of Felipe Gónzalez and in 2011, during the presidency of José María Aznar, they were sanctioned by King Juan Carlos. The first reform was that of article 13.2 to adapt the Constitution to the Maastricht Treaty by allowing citizens of other EU countries residing in Spain to run as candidates in municipal elections. The one that was approved in 2011 was that of article 135 to guarantee the budgetary stability of public administrations.
At the beginning of this morning’s event in the Zarzuela, the head of protocol of the King’s House read the joint communication from Congress and the Senate in which the King was informed of the reform. Next, on the National Heritage desk placed in the room in front of the tapestry, Sánchez signed the text and, subsequently, the King did so.
As witnesses have been the president of Congress, Francina Armengol; that of the Senate, Pedro Rollán; that of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, and that of the General Council of the Judiciary, Vicente Guilarte.
