Disobedience to the police will only be punished if there is "bodily opposition or physical force"

National police search and request documentation, in March 2020, from a young man who was walking on the street during confinement. Jaime Villanueva

The reform of the citizen security law, better known as the

, continues its slow parliamentary procedure with small advances.

Among the latter is the principle of agreement reached in recent weeks by the parliamentary groups of PSOE, United We Can, PNV, EH Bildu and Junts —five of the six in favor of modifying the norm— to modify article 36.6 of the law, the most used during the first state of alarm due to the pandemic to punish those who skipped confinement, according to sources from these parties.

This article considers a serious infraction —fines of 601 to 30,000 euros— “disobedience or resistance to the authority or its agents in the exercise of their functions”.

The proposal states that this disobedience will only be punishable if it is accompanied by "bodily opposition or physical force."

The ERC parliamentary group, which had submitted an amendment to delete this article, rejects the proposed text, considering that the changes "are minimal", sources of the same emphasize.

This Wednesday, representatives of these six parliamentary groups meet again.

This principle of agreement is valued as "relevant" by several of the participants in the negotiations, who ask to remain anonymous, since 36.6 had become one of the stumbling blocks of the negotiation that these six parliamentary groups maintain behind the scenes.

In fact, the Ministry of the Interior used it as the main instrument of its punitive policy during the first state of alarm of 2020. During those three months, the Security Forces issued 1.14 million sanction proposals with this article.

In 2019, the same article had been used to initiate only 14,747 disciplinary proceedings.

For this reason, the Ombudsman came to request information on the fines processed to determine if the police had acted during the confinement “in a correct and proportional manner”.

When the parliamentary procedures for the reform of the gag law began, the PSOE and its government partners, United We Can, did not include this article among their amendments.

In fact, in an appearance in Congress in April 2020, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, already warned that there would be precepts "that will always have to be in the next law", referring precisely to 36.6.

On the contrary, ERC and EH Bildu did propose in their amendments the modification of it and even, in the case of the Republicans, its suppression, considering that it facilitated “police abuses”.

discrepancies

Despite the progress, the negotiation to reform the gag law continues slower than expected.

In fact, the work of the parliamentary report has been paralyzed since March after having reached agreements on only 29 articles.

For this reason, PSOE, United We Can, ERC, PNV, EH Bildu and Junts then agreed to hold preparatory meetings to iron out differences and be able to go to the next meeting of the former with a text already closed to speed up the parliamentary process and avoid the frontal opposition of the right-wing parties.

However, discrepancies have also emerged at these meetings.

"Things are not going well," they say from the Republican group.

The six parliamentary groups leave the negotiation of the points that represent a major obstacle for the end, to move forward with the rest.

Among those that have been left is article 23, which must include the police use of riot gear and, specifically, the controversial rubber balls.

The PSOE defends that they continue to be used, but with a protocol that strictly regulates when and how to do it.

However, the republican parliamentary group - which recalls that the Mossos d'Esquadra are prohibited from using it and use

projectiles - and EH Bildu demand its prohibition.

Another of the articles that generates controversy is 37.4, which contemplates fines for lack of respect for the police.

The Socialists did not want to touch the current wording, but they recently presented an alternative text that has not convinced all the groups, considering that it lends itself to the arbitrariness of the agents.

Sources familiar with the negotiations indicate that, at the moment, they are working on a text that details what is meant by humiliating and offensive acts and expressions.

As the last major stumbling block, some participants in the negotiation recall that the ERC tensed the group's work on April 5 by presenting a document with 11 modifications that the formation considers inalienable so that its deputies vote in favor of the reform.

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