Congress will approve this Tuesday the consideration for the reform of the gag law agreed in recent weeks between EH Bildu. The parties that form the majority that support the Government announced during this Tuesday’s debate that they would support the first stage of this law, so that it begins its parliamentary journey, where several forces have already announced that they will present amendments . This attempt is the fourth that the Lower House has made to dismantle the regulation that Mariano Rajoy put in place in 2015 to restrict the right to demonstrate and which has been in force for much longer with the majority promising to repeal it than with an executive PP.
The new law, negotiated by EH Bildu and PSOE but which bears the signatures of Sumar, PNV and BNG, will eliminate the use of rubber bullets and calls for changing the immigration law within six months to do so. put an end to it. to hot returns. It also modifies sanctions for disrespect of authority and disobedience. The agreement thus addresses the four points which blocked the negotiation during the last legislature. Only PP, Vox and UPN announced their vote against.
Concerning rubber balls, the new text speaks of replacing this material with “less harmful means”. The new law calls on authorities to develop specific protocols “in line with international standards” on the management of demonstrations and gatherings. These protocols must include the use of force and riot equipment to “always use means that are least harmful to people and prevent them from causing irreparable harm.” Social groups have historically criticized rubber bullets for the injuries caused to many protesters, who lost their sight from the impact of these projectiles.
And for hot returns, the agreement includes an additional provision so that within six months a modification of the law on immigration is considered “by establishing as criteria for modification the respect and application of regulations on the rights of the ‘man and international protection’, establishing access and international protection. assessment of applications for international protection before possible expulsion proceedings.
“Today could be a great day for society as a whole. Today we can lay the first stone so that the last point of the law on citizen security is completed, as you have envisaged. Today we can put an end to a law that has restricted our freedom of expression,” said socialist spokesperson David Serrada during the debate where he defended the proposal.
The deputy of Sumar and spokesperson of the IU in Congress, Enrique Santiago, also called on the democratic forces not to miss this opportunity. “And we are seeing great agreement between democratic forces, which is unusual. Are. Six parliamentary groups have presented this proposal, an important support to take it into consideration and begin a parliamentary procedure which, hopefully, will be urgent, because there is no excuse among Democrats to end the Gag Law in force since then it has been the longest period with the left coalition government than with the People’s Party,” he said on the platform.
Then he urged the most reluctant forces. “So we have at our fingertips what is probably the last opportunity to end the Gag Law. And we Democrats have no excuse to let this slide,” he added.
Some of these forces are Podemos and Junts, which in recent weeks have shown their skepticism about the agreement reached between the PSOE and EH Bildu. “This is a lighter version of the gag law that does not reword or repeal it. It is limited to refining some of the most harmful aspects while taking care not to irritate the police unions,” lamented the spokesperson for the Catalan nationalists Josep Pagés.
Previously, Podemos MP Martina Velarde criticized the ERC and EH Bildu for giving in to the claims made in the last legislature, which both groups rejected with visible gestures from the rostrum. “Members of ERC and EH Bildu, we understand that you must explain to your electorate your support for a government that only knows how to do right-wing things,” he began. “But we can’t allow them to sell us that this is progress when this same thing could have been approved in 2023. They didn’t do it because rubber bullets and hot returns weren’t prohibited. Podemos is here. This is a partial reform, so it needs to be improved to comply with international standards,” he said.
