He agreement signed by the PSOE and EH-Bildu for reform the most controversial articles of the citizen security law, better known as Gag law, This provoked the anger of the National Police and Civil Guard groups, who have been positioning themselves for years against attempts to carry out this legislative reform which reduces their capacity for action and reduces their authority in front of the criminal.
The agreement includes the ban on hot returns of migrants at the border – which provides for a change in the immigration law – and the gradual elimination of use of rubber bullets by police officers during major riots. Also includes reduce fines for disobedience and lack of respect for authority.
The reform of the law on citizen security, a rule approved by the PP of Mariano Rajoy, was a commitment that the PSOE had made with its partners during the last legislature. The proposed changes were never implemented due to the demands of radical and nationalist groups. Concretely, EH Bildu and ERC backed down on several occasions, blocking the reform, believing that the modifications that the executive was willing to grant were insufficient.
Police unions like the Spanish Police Confederation (CEP) are demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. “Ppolice officers more exposed to violence is the shameful balance that this government will be able to display in the face of those who have been trying for years to prune this norm so that violence and incivility are free; so that we, police officers, stop protecting the rights of everyone and become simple spectators, powerless in the face of those who seek to impose a model of coexistence based on the impunity of a few and the lack of protection of a few, the social majority, who only want to live and work in peaceful coexistence.”
For the CEP, the gradual withdrawal of rubber bullets from the Spanish public order model “is further proof that there are no red lines for this government and that those who speak about the results of our work are incapable of not submitting to political negotiations on issues that directly affect our personal security, our lives and that of our families.
According to the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC), the executive “uses” the civil guards as “negotiating chips, leaving them tied hand and foot in their work”. This was stated by its spokesperson, Pedro Carmona. “Officers need tools to be able to do their jobs safely.” at a time when attacks continue to multiply from year to year on the civil guards”.
The JUPOL union also spoke out against the agreement. Its spokesperson, Ibón Domínguez, warns that the elimination of rubber bullets in the equipment of National Police agents “is a red line that we cannot tolerate crossing on the part of this union, because This represents the elimination of a fundamental tool for police work in situations of serious unrest.
All representatives of the police group agree on the diagnosis. “We will have more difficulties, and sometimes almost impossible, to carry out our workand those who will suffer the consequences will be the citizens, who will be harmed, because the will of a few will be enough to restrict their rights and freedoms,” warns the JUPOL spokesperson.
The Professional Association of the Civil Guard (JUCIL) emphasizes that this reform was promoted by EH Bildu, a party which, in the past, defended the positions of ETA terrorists. For Agustín Leal, communications secretary of this association, “It is unacceptable for the government to cave in to those who once supported violence and terror.. “This agreement does not take into account the reality of police officers on the street or the difficulties they face on a daily basis.”
Leal is blunt about this: “What the government is doing is not protecting those who risk their lives every day to keep citizens safe. This reform does not respond to a social demand, but to a political interest on the part of the PSOE to obtain the support of Bildu to carry out the Budgets. “These measures disarm the civil guards and the police.”
From the Unified Police Union (SUP), they warn that They will exhaust every avenue possible to prevent this reform from moving forward. “The restriction on the use of anti-riot equipment, which already enjoyed a standard in terms of situations, proportionality and correct use, is one more stick in the wheel of public security and the maintenance of peace. order in situations where “they want to reverse it in a particularly violent way in our streets”.
Regarding hot returns, the SUP explains that agents are already “subject to different legal frameworks, both national and international, which already consider these hypotheses and adapt them to the standard implemented for the entire Schenghen area and to the signatories of the latest regulatory text on immigration issues in the European Union”.
All these changes will be reflected in the Organic Law for the protection of freedoms and security of citizens, who will replace Gag lawand which will include the use of riot control equipment such as rubber bullets gradually replaced by other less harmful materials, As confirmed this Thursday by the spokesperson for EH Bildu in Congress, Mertxe Aizpurúaat a press conference, who believes that ERC and Junts join to this agreement.
In the previous legislature Attempts have already been made to reverse the most harmful aspects of this standard to Congress. In fact, the committee responsible for this review even approved a report, but it ended up failing before the Interior Commission due to the refusal of Bildu and ERC to support it, deeming it insufficient.
In fact, last March these two government allies canceled the changes agreed to by the PSOE, Podemos and the PNV. because they did not even include the ban on hot returns nor the gradual withdrawal of the use of rubber bullets by police officers. “It’s a reform light and sweet”, the government’s pro-independence partners came to say.
Changes to the Gag law
Today, a few months later and while the Government is negotiating the General State Budgets with its partners, EH Bildu manages to eliminate the most controversial aspects of these regulations.
The most important changes are four:
1.- The use of rubber bullets ends, replace them with less harmful means.
2.- End of hot returns at the border.
Within six months following the entry into force of this new law, the change to immigration law establish as criteria for modification respect and application of standards relating to human rights and international protection, establish access and evaluation of requests for international protection before the possible expulsion procedure.
3.- About lack of respect for authorityputs an end to unjustified sanctions or sanctions based on subjective interpretations, Freedom of expression is protected and its annulment is established in the event of the accused’s retraction.
With this agreement, section 4 of article 37 of the Citizen Security Act referring to minor offenses, which will be considered as “insults or insults whose recipient is a member of the security forces and bodies in the exercise of their security protection functions, when these behaviors do not constitute a criminal offense “.
“To understand that the offense has been committed, it is necessary relevant expressionswithout the mere disagreement with a legitimate mandate or with the fundamental exercise of freedom of expression being considered punishable. Likewise, the sanction will remain ineffective when the sanctioned person agrees to retract/apologize for their expressions,” indicates the document of the agreement between the PSOE, Sumar and Bildu.
4.- Concerning the disobedience to authority, the violation is upgraded from serious to minor and it is established that the disobedience must be manifest, clear and objective, that it will be punishable only when it is adapted to a legal order, adapted to the law or the legal system, preventing discretion over requirements and sanctions .
Article 20 (new) is added to article 37 to the notion of minor offenses “manifest and clear disobedience to authority or its agents in the exercise of their functions, when it involves the refusal to comply with a legal order or in accordance with the law or judicial order and when it does not constitute a criminal offence.
“Resistance to authority or its agents through bodily opposition when it involves refusal to comply with a legal order or in accordance with the law or legal order, and when it does not constitute an offense criminal.
The manifest and clear refusal to identify oneself at the request of the authority or its agents, or the allegation of false or inaccurate data in the identification processes, and when this does not constitute a criminal offense”, may we read in the text.
