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Congress takes the first step to decriminalize insults to the Crown and outrages against the flag

2022-09-29T21:23:56.020Z


The PSOE definitively joins an old demand from United We Can and the independentistas Burning of photos of King Felipe VI in Barcelona in November 2019.Albert Garcia The PSOE has definitively joined the proposal that the forces to its left and the independentistas have defended for a long time to decriminalize the crimes of insulting the Crown and insulting the symbols of Spain. The Socialists ratified this Thursday their support for a bill, promoted from the Senate by ERC and EH


Burning of photos of King Felipe VI in Barcelona in November 2019.Albert Garcia

The PSOE has definitively joined the proposal that the forces to its left and the independentistas have defended for a long time to decriminalize the crimes of insulting the Crown and insulting the symbols of Spain.

The Socialists ratified this Thursday their support for a bill, promoted from the Senate by ERC and EH Bildu, which proposes the suppression of two articles and a section of another of the Penal Code to withdraw the King and his family that specific legal protection and stop considering actions such as burning the flag a crime.

Faced with the closed opposition of the right, the PSOE and its usual allies agreed to start the process of the initiative.

The Socialists have come a long way in the last two years to finish defining themselves on a crime whose application has caused cases such as that of the rapper Valtònyc, who has fled in Belgium since 2018. In October 2020, the PSOE joined its vote with the right to reject an ERC proposal similar to the one now approved.

A year later, the Socialists did give their support to another initiative of United We Can that asked to suppress certain crimes of opinion, that of insulting the Crown among them.

The PSOE then warned that it supported the law being processed, but that it would amend it because it did not share all of its content.

These differences have not been bridged until today and the text is bogged down between continuous extensions of the period for tabling amendments.

After two years of insistence, the allies of the PSOE managed to get him not to raise any objections this time.

The Socialists gave free rein to the process of a reform that is specifically aimed at eliminating the crimes of insulting the King and the Principality of Asturias, punishable by up to six years in prison, and others punished with fines, such as the use of the image of the monarchs "in any way that could damage the prestige of the Crown" or "outrage against Spain and its symbols".

These legal changes, argued the socialist deputy Andrea Fernández, will contribute to reinforcing "ideological freedom and freedom of expression."

The issue sparked one of those debates in which Congress is sharply divided.

On one side, the left and all the nationalist groups, the "Government and those who want to destroy Spain", in the mouth of their opponents.

And on the other, "the return of the Colón trio", as the spokesmen for the PSOE and United We Can ironized.

PP, Vox and Ciudadanos had submitted amendments to the whole, each one separately and all with alternative text.

The popular ones asked to leave things more or less as they are;

Vox even proposed to toughen some penalties and Citizens, on the other hand, reduce prison sentences to fines.

Only the text of the PP achieved the favorable vote of the three groups and gave the measure of the distribution of forces in the Chamber on the issue: 152 yeses (the Canarian Coalition and the Navarrese and Asturian regionalists joined), 191 noes (PSOE, UP, CKD,

The argumentative basis of the three opposition groups was very similar.

The spokesman for Ciudadanos, Edmundo Bal, opened the gap to denounce that what is intended is to "legitimize the insult" and guarantee the independentists "impunity in the face of their campaign to demolish the symbols of Spain."

With very similar words, José María Sánchez, from Vox, and Eloy Suárez, from the PP, later came to the same conclusion.

Sánchez reproached the PSOE for its change of position and its allies for the reiteration —”unpatriotic perseverance”, he called it— with which they have proposed this initiative in the last two years.

The popular Suárez also placed the proposal as part of an attempt by the independentistas to "undermine one of the State institutions that bothers them a lot" and questioned the socialists:

"Are we going to maintain and protect the constitutional text or not?"

The socialist Fernández replied: "We are not going to allow this to become an affront to the constitutional order."

On the part of the government groups, the one who most ardently defended the initiative was Enrique Santiago, from United We Can.

"This is not about symbols and institutions, it's about rights and freedoms," Santiago said.

The UP deputy, like all the spokespersons who spoke in favor of the initiative, recalled that the European Court of Human Rights has already condemned Spain twice for the application of these crimes.

"With this," he stressed, "criminal proceedings were opened for artistic or satirical comments, for a cartoon from

El Jueves

or for playing the Spanish anthem in a stadium."

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-09-29

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