The Senate has approved this Thursday the express reform of the Penal Code —which repeals the crime of sedition and reduces that of embezzlement— with the most pending public attention from other fronts: the Christmas lottery draw and the hangover from the unprecedented clash of the last days between the powers of the State.
During the debate, the PSOE has taken advantage of the concentration of spotlights in the Constitutional Court to tiptoe over the penal reform, proof of the discomfort that it arouses among the Socialists.
The suppression of sedition and the reduction of embezzlement are "risky" measures, as Pedro Sánchez acknowledged days ago, although, in his opinion, necessary to resolve the territorial crisis in Catalonia generated by the
process
.
Before the vote, which has gone ahead by 140 votes in favor (PSOE, ERC, PNV, EH Bildu and Més per Mallorca), 118 against (PP, Junts, Vox, Teruel Existe, UPN, Cs, PRC, Canarian Coalition , Aragonese Party and two independent senators) and three abstentions (Compromís, Más Madrid and Geroa Bai), the president of the Upper House, Ander Gil, recalled that the Constitutional had forced the withdrawal of the amendments referring to the renewal of the court itself, that had been initially incorporated into this legal reform, "preventing, in the opinion of this presidency, the full exercise of the legitimate powers of the Senate."
After failing the last attempt of the Senate so that the Constitutional accepted that these amendments were also voted on, the Upper House has given the green light to a bill processed by the urgent procedure.
The Government and its allies have already advanced their intention to recover the content of the amendments to the Constitution in another bill to be able to replace the four magistrates of the court whose mandate has expired and who continue in their posts due to the blockade in the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ).
But the reform that did reach the plenary session of the Senate this Thursday fully affects the two crimes for which the leaders of the process were convicted
,
and will benefit the pro-independence leaders still pending trial.
Sedition (up to now punishable by a maximum of 15 years in prison) disappears, and the new crime that, according to the Government's interpretation, could include those facts, that of aggravated public disorder, will have a maximum sentence of five years.
In turn, the punishment for non-profit embezzlement will be a maximum of four years in prison, when now up to 12 can be imposed.
The socialist spokesman, José María Oleaga, did not expressly defend the repeal of sedition and the change in embezzlement: he devoted his speech to the incident of the Constitutional Court and the veto of the popular to the renewal of the CGPJ, pending for four years.
“The PP has presented a preventive amparo appeal, supposedly to defend the rights of some parliamentarians and that has caused a debate in the Cortes Generales to be prevented.
The PSOE's commitment is to defend democracy, democracy will prevail, ”he said, and all his intervention moved on that central axis.
Oleaga finally argued that the objective of the penal modification is to "standardize" the law with that of other European countries and "encourage coexistence and reunion."
"It is true that there are citizens who have doubts, it is logical,
But you have to have perspective.
Everyone will appreciate that coexistence in Catalonia has improved ”, he predicted.
More information
Practical guide to understand the institutional crisis
"Sánchez is paying the highest price that a president of the Government has ever paid," said Javier Maroto, spokesman for the PP, who urged the PSOE senators to break voting discipline.
“Where are the socialists like Javier Lambán or Emiliano García-Page?
They are all the same as Sánchez ”, he charged against the two barons who have most forcefully distanced themselves from the reform of the Penal Code.
Despite the seriousness of the moment that Spain is going through according to the right, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, joined the debate when he had already been there for more than an hour.
And only for short periods: almost all the time he was absent until it was time for the votes.
“It was not a matter of urgency, it was a matter of shame for processing a law like this on a day like today.
Can you hear the children of San Ildefonso in the background?
Even so, Maroto hinted at the doubts that the strategy followed in the Constitutional Court has raised in the PP.
Party sources admit that there is concern about the possible binding and mobilizing effect on the left, which has joined the accusation against Feijóo for wanting, in the words of Pedro Sánchez, to "mute the Cortes Generales" with this legal maneuver.
These sources fear that the unprecedented institutional crisis experienced this week will become a boomerang for the PP.
Maroto, in any case, argued: "Pedro Sánchez is a legitimate president, for the PP he is not an illegitimate president and a
squatter
.
But his attitude is a deeply illegitimate attitude, promising one thing in the campaign and doing the opposite: he promised not to pardon the coup plotters, not to govern supported by the independentistas, to leave Podemos out of the Government to reconcile sleep... He has betrayed everything he who spoke”.
“What the PP and the Constitutional say is that this law cannot be approved like this.
It is a matter of botching, of forms”, justified the popular senator.
He also assumed that the Government will agree to a referendum on the independence of Catalonia, despite the fact that it is unconstitutional and Sánchez has rejected it outright.
"You need to place a specific magistrate, who starts with Cándido and ends with Pumpido, to make sure that when that consultation arrives, the Constitutional Court is not an obstacle," said Maroto, referring to the magistrate of the guarantee court Cándido Conde-Pumpido, who he could become president of the body after the renewal.
Several CGPJ advisers proposed by the PP demanded on Tuesday that the progressive member Clara Martínez de Careaga be removed from the procedure for being the wife of Conde-Pumpido.
His attempt did not succeed.
“The PP is the instigator of the Constitutional attack to take away the floor of the representatives of popular sovereignty.
A party that celebrates this is a party that has rebelled against democracy”, asserted Pablo Gómez Perpinyà (Más Madrid).
The debate also served to verify the division that the legal reform generates in the independence movement.
"ERC's commitment to dialogue is bearing fruit: with the repeal of sedition we managed to reduce the repressive capacity of the State," defended Mirella Cortès.
The ERC senator reproached the criticism of Junts, her partner in the Government until a few months ago: “The negotiation for the dejudicialization of the conflict with the PSOE and Unidas Podemos is an arduous task.
If all the pro-independence forces were accompanying, the results would be much better.
Your position is so difficult to explain that you don't even understand it yourselves,” she said.
"From Junts we are not going to sacrifice the referendum on October 1," Josep Maria Cervera had previously argued.
The formation of Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive
ex
-president in Brussels, does not support the penal reform because he understands that, despite the changes in sedition and embezzlement, it is implicitly recognized that the 2017 secessionist challenge was illegal.
“This legislative process is not an example of anything.
We are going to ventilate it in a week... In less time it is impossible, ”said the senator from Junts.
A criticism shared by regular members of the Executive such as the PRC or the Aragonese Party.
Socialist senators did not hide their discomfort in private, but also their relief at the end of a process that has put the party under stress.
Miguel Sánchez, from Ciudadanos, was the one who referred most clearly to the effect that the political controversy of recent days has had on the penal reform, overshadowing its significance: “There is an elephant in the Senate.
How has Sánchez hidden it from the 47 million Spaniards?
Causing a stampede of elephants, bison and even wildebeest.
We've been talking about the Constitutional Court for a week!
It has been an intelligent and Machiavellian maneuver, not even Houdini himself ”, he affirmed.
A
merit
that the PSOE attributed to the PP and Núñez Feijóo.
Más Madrid warns of the risks for the future: "The door is open to impunity for the authorities"
Pablo Gómez Perpinyà, senator appointed by Más Madrid, tried to introduce, via amendment, into the Penal Code a new crime to specifically punish —with penalties of between 5 and 10 years in prison and another 10 years of disqualification— members of the Government of the nation or autonomous governments, as well as deputies of the General Courts or Legislative Assemblies of the Autonomous Communities, who agree or promote acts "directed at the achievement of the purposes set forth in the crime of rebellion."
Gómez Perpinyà did not receive support for his proposal and ended up withdrawing it.
In the explanatory statement, the Más Madrid amendment argued that the new Penal Code lacks an "institutional crime of endangering the constitutional rule of law, independent of riotous and violent acts for its execution",
