After weeks of negotiations, the PSOE and Sumar reached an agreement to approve the Democratic Action Planalso known as the regeneration plan, which was presented at the press conference after the Council of Ministers on Tuesday. Negotiations between the two parties that were only closed at the last minute including the reform of crimes of opinion and certain articles of the gag lawas LaSexta was able to confirm thanks to Sumar sources.
Since Sumar, they have been frank about this project and have clearly expressed their position: to protect and defend freedom of expression in Spain. The party has assured that the agreed measure is the following: “Address a comprehensive reform of the articles of the Penal Code that may affect the right to freedom of expression and artistic creation, among other cases when it refers to state institutionswhether it is crimes against religious feelings or public ridicule or other hypotheses, in order to give them a formulation comparable to the countries around us and to comply with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, in matters of defamation and its legal relevance.
To this extent, crimes related to religious crimes and in other cases when they refer to “State institutions” are clarified. The party led by Yolanda Díaz stressed to LaSexta that with the reform – in which the jurisprudence that includes the penalties of the Crown is mentioned – all institutions are grouped, that is, they too The Royal House is included despite the fact that the word “Corona” is not expressly included in the document.
The cited case law includes several decisions in which Sumar uses his cover to reform issues relating to insults to the Crown. The first is the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), dated 15 March 2011, known as the Stern Taulats and Roura Capellera affairIn this judgment, the European Court condemned Spain for violating Article 10 of the European Convention after sentencing to prison two men who had burned a photograph of the kings during a demonstration in 2007.
Although it is not the only one. The case law also refers to the judgment of March 13, 2018 of the same court and to the judgment of the ECHR, of June 8, 2023, in which Otegi who called the king “chief torturer” and the judgment of the ECHR, of June 8, 2023, in which the CIG trade unionist Pablo Fragoso Dacosta declared that “We had to burn that fucking flag”.
In the latter, it was held that freedom of expression “applies not only to information or ideas perceived as harmless”, but also to those which “offend, create an impact or disturbance to the State or to any sector of society.”
For their part, PSOE sources consulted by LaSexta stated that crimes of insult to the Crown are not affected and that only those relating to religious offences will be reformed.
