The spokesperson for the PP in the Senate, Alicia García, announced this Friday that her group would raise before the Constitutional Court a “conflict of powers” between the Upper House and Congress after it did not approve the veto after the fixed deadline. the law which combines sentences that prisoners may have served in other EU countries. Meanwhile, the law continues its course: Congress has confirmed that it has already been sent to the Government for publication in the BOE, which practically closes the door to a rectification of the decision adopted by the Council of the Chamber last Tuesday and that the PP appealed.
García accused Francina Armengol of “boycotting the powers of the Senate and usurping the capacity to interpret the Rules of this Chamber, which is not her responsibility” and of “guzzling” the Chamber, all this after the PP supported the law in Congress and will not present any amendment, total or partial, against the text for weeks.
The PP thus maintains its strategy of trying to hide its own fiasco, always without explaining it clearly, with accusations against the government. The PP authorized the adoption in Congress of a Sumar amendment which equalizes the rights of Spanish prisoners with those of other countries of the European Union. In the Justice Commission of the Congress, he approved the complete opinion on legal reform, and later, in the plenary session, he also voted in favor. In fact, the rule was adopted unanimously: the 346 deputies present voted for it.
The text then went to the Senate, where the PP has an absolute majority. But Alicia García’s group followed in the footsteps of her congressional colleagues and registered no amendments. Neither partial nor veto. With the deadlines already met, the media warned of the consequences of the law, which could benefit ETA detainees, and that is when the PP tried to end the rule. Thus, and against all expectations, the President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, took advantage of a purely testimonial vote to consider the law as having been vetoed and send it back to Congress. The Council of the Lower House, after an oral report from the lead lawyer, decided not to take into account the veto produced. This is the decision that the PP now wants to take to the Constitutional Court.
This Friday, the decision of the Council of Congress has already been published in the Bulletin of the Cortes Generales, emphasizing that the Senate did not communicate its veto in the terms required by the Constitution and that the vote of rejection, produced after the deadline, “does “It can be considered a veto within the meaning of the provisions of article 90.2 of the Constitution and constitutional jurisprudence.”
Consequently, it is reported that the Presidency of the House will transmit the bill to the Government “for the purpose of submitting it, according to the usual procedure, to the provisions of article 91 of the Constitution”, i.e. to the signature of the king. and publication in the Official State Gazette.
