The spokesman for the Interior of United We Can, Enrique Santiago, and the former leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, have maintained a scuffle on Twitter for pointing out those responsible for the failure of the reform of the PP Citizen Security law, better known as the gag law , knocked down this Tuesday in the Interior commission with the votes against ERC and EH Bildu, who have joined those of the right.
Iglesias has defended and applauded in an article in the digital Contexto the decision of ERC and EH Bildu, usual allies of the Government, to vote against the norm for not having included the ban on rubber balls, among other arguments, while Santiago, also a parliamentary spokesman for the United Left and the main person in charge of negotiating the reform on the part of the confederal group, has refuted his ideas.
“ERC, Bildu and Podemos are absolutely right in demanding that the repeal of the gag law, which the PSOE refuses to do, end once and for all with rubber bullets in Spain,” Iglesias summarized the content of his article on Twitter .
To which Santiago replied 23 minutes later: “The Gag Law does not mention rubber balls once, it is a matter of regional and State police laws. Nor is there a law in Catalonia prohibiting rubber balls. UP has worked to eliminate them, but not achieving it still does not justify 4 more years of Gag”.
The former vice president of the Government maintained his thesis by referring his interlocutor to another Twitter thread in which the former alleged: “There are people on the left accusing ERC and Bildu of not repealing the gag law. I respect their good intention but they are wrong”.
According to Iglesias’ interpretation, “the PSOE has never wanted to repeal the gag law. They understand that it does not benefit them in the face of their electorate and Marlaska fears “union” pressure (Jusapol) and also that of police commanders.”
For this reason, he continues, the Socialists “have designed a negotiation in which they have closed in band the proposals of the left-wing partners, knowing that without ERC and Bildu the reform would not come out. And now they are covered with an ‘a me that they search me’ pointing to the left as guilty of not approving the reform. It is foolish to fall into this trap”.
The IU spokesman in Congress and general secretary of the PCE would regret an hour later, on the same social network, but without referring to Iglesias, that “the ultra right has managed to sink the recovery and expansion of rights and freedoms”, when ” there were still weeks to agree on rubber balls/border”. And he asked “why it has been decided today to leave the Gag Law in force for years.” In reality, it was the PSOE, not the “ultra right”, who precipitated the vote today without having an agreement with ERC and EH Bildu, as sources from Podemos and today Iglesias denounced last night.
Another curious reaction and in the opposite direction has been that of the former deputy of Vox Macarena Olona, ??who after the fiasco of the reform has congratulated the disputed Catalan and Basque independentistas with sarcasm. “Today they have earned the salary of national Deputies of Spain,” she pointed out.
