The reform of the 'gag law' restarts the parliamentary process with significant discrepancies between the PSOE and its partners

Demonstration against the gag law held on February 13 in Madrid (Spain) convened by Amnesty International. Jesus Hellin 2022 (Europa Press)

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

, will restart its parliamentary process next week after nearly 10 months in which the six political groups in favor of modifying the norm ―PSOE, Unidas Podemos, ERC, PNV, EH Bildu and Junts― have tried to reach a prior agreement which, up to now, has not been complete.

During these months, these formations have managed, after more than 30 meetings, to agree on the amendments to fifteen articles, but they have not been able to bring positions closer to six where the differences are still "significant", according to several of the participants in these meetings. .

Other sources reduce these discrepancies to three and affirm that the agreement is "quite close" in the other three in which there is still no agreement.

"We are now worse than a month ago," lament sources familiar with the negotiations, who emphasize that points that were considered closed after reaching an agreement in principle, have been reopened in recent weeks due to the change of position of one of the groups.

A part of the negotiators accuse the PSOE of this setback, while others place the responsibility on ERC and EH Bildu.

However, there are three in which the agreement has never been close to those that represent the main stumbling block.

These are those that establish the use of riot control material, including the controversial rubber balls, to deal with street riots (article 23);

the one that sets the sanctions for lack of respect to the agents (article 37.4),

and the one that supports the rejections at the border —known as hot returns— of migrants at the land borders of Ceuta and Melilla (tenth additional provision).

The Socialists are not willing to move from the position they established in their initial amendments presented in November, some elaborated together with Unidas Podemos.

In fact, it has been left alone in the defense of rubber balls.

For ERC and EH-Bildu, the wording of these is unaffordable.

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The discrepancies in six articles slow down the final stretch of the reform of the 'gag law'

In fact, faced with this situation of blockade, last week the six parties agreed to put an end to these behind-the-scenes meetings and formally restart the parliamentary presentation, in which the parties that oppose modifying the law will already be present: PP, Vox and Citizens.

The next meeting of this body, which will be the third, will be on Wednesday.

In the previous two – held in January and February – it was found that, in addition to the frontal opposition of the three right-wing groups, the parties that did support the reform only managed to agree on around thirty articles.

In fact, to settle the differences that arose, these six groups agreed to start the now interrupted informal meetings.

That objective was quickly discarded given the differences that were found from the outset between the groups.

In fact, after more than 30 behind-the-scenes meetings, last week the six parties agreed to change the current format of the negotiations to try to bridge these differences in the face of the blockade.

Unidas Podemos and the PNV promised to present alternative texts to the other parties to pave the way for the final agreement.

Thus, the first of the parties has proposed, to overcome the obstacle of the use of riot gear, the creation within six months of a commission chaired by the Ombudsman to study "the transition and substitution" of rubber balls by other less harmful material.

While that agreement arrives, the first step of the meeting of the presentation on Wednesday will be the approval of the fifteen articles in which there is already an agreement.

Among them, the modification so that the consumption or possession of drugs on the street will no longer necessarily be punishable with a fine (article 36.16), and that this can be replaced by a "treatment or rehabilitation, if necessary, or activity of re-education" if the offender himself requests it.

They have also agreed to eliminate as an offense the "obscene display" (article 37.5) or the occupation of public roads for unauthorized street vending, popularly known as

(article 37.7).

They have also agreed to add new provisions to the law to, for example, include modules on mediation for conflict resolution in the training of police officers and minimize the risk of altercations in demonstrations.

broken deal

In which there was supposedly an agreement and, however, in the end this has been broken, are the one that sanctions with fines of 601 to 30,000 euros "disobedience or resistance to the authority or its agents", which was used massively to punish those who they skipped confinement during the pandemic (article 36.6), and the one that allows the Security Forces to install controls in public places to identify and search people, and search vehicles (article 17.2).

Neither has the reference to the subsidiary liability of the conveners of a demonstration for incidents that may occur during the demonstration been closed (article 30.3).

In the case of the first, a proposal that was accepted in principle indicated that disobedience would only be punishable if it was accompanied by "corporal opposition or physical force."

According to negotiating sources, the PSOE, which had initially given the go-ahead to this wording, raised objections again.

In the second, the nationalist parties demand that the obligation of the Police to notify these measures "limiting rights" be added to the Prosecutor's Office, the Ombudsman and, in the event that there is an autonomous police force with powers in the territory where occurs, to this.

In the latter, some groups demand that it be suppressed, considering that the convener of a demonstration cannot be held responsible for what the participants do in it.