The reform of the Franco law on official secrets begins its processing in Congress for the third time after two frustrated attempts

Boxes of documents in the General Administration Archive, in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).Álvaro García

Third time should be the charm.

The plenary session of Congress approved this Tuesday, for the third time in the last eight years, the consideration of a bill from the PNV to reform Franco's law on official secrets.

The PNV bill has passed by 176 votes in favor and 169 against.

All groups, except the PP and Vox, have approved the start of a process that does not guarantee reaching a successful conclusion.

In fact, on the two previous occasions, 2016 and 2020, the initiative ended up foundering due to the dissolution of the Cortes, after the PP and PSOE blocked its processing at the Congress Table by indefinitely extending the period for presenting amendments.

“Let us trust that all groups will work to make [the new law] a reality,” said the socialist spokesperson, Juan Carlos Jerez.

The PNV spokesperson, Mikel Legarda, recalled that his group has been presenting this same proposal for several legislatures and has expressed his doubts that the Government has a real will to repeal a law that was approved in the midst of the dictatorship, 1968, and retouched ten years later, before the Constitution was approved.

After being open to changing the automatic declassification deadlines provided for in its text - 25 years, exceptionally extendable for another ten for secret matters;

and ten non-extendable years for the reserved ones—has not hidden that his objective is for the Government to “get on the reform bandwagon.” Even so, he has suggested, with his own proposal, as he did in August 2022, when he presented a project of classified information law that was frustrated when it already had all the mandatory reports due to the advance of the elections.

Junts spokesperson, Miariam Nogueras, has taken the opportunity to request that the law on judicial control of the secret service also be reformed.

“We can say that there are judges of the Supreme Court who are part of the CNI staff,” he added. The only one who has expressly charged against the initiative has been the Vox deputy José María Sánchez García, who has attributed it to an “obsession.” of the PNV for his efforts to repeal the still-current Francoist law and has reproached him for wanting to remove the ability to declare secret matters from the military authorities, a power that in reality they no longer have.

The PP spokesperson, Carlos Rojas, has recognized that the Official Secrets Law must be reformed to improve the security of citizens and has stressed that "without a doubt" it is necessary to open a debate on this matter "from consensus and responsibility." , but he ended up announcing the contrary vote of his group, because he disagreed that “the mere passage of time” could lead to the declassification of secrets.

On the two previous occasions the PP abstained.

This is the first time he has voted against.

The difference perhaps lies in the fact that there are less than two months until the elections in the Basque Country and this is an initiative of the PNV.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_