In just twenty-four hours, EH Bildu recovered its second political piece from the government.
If this Wednesday we knew that the hidden agenda of prisoners for votes agreement with the PSOE served to grant the third degree to two unrepentant members of ETA for blood crimes, the abertzales announced this Thursday that they had reached an agreement with the socialists to reform the appeal Gag law.
As police unions alerted EL ESPAÑOL, New articles of the Citizen Security Law reduce the capacity of security forces to actmakes their work difficult and undermines their authority over criminals.
This will be the predictable effect of the changes introduced by the reform: the reduction of fines for disobedience (which range from serious offenses to minor offenses) and for lack of respect for authority, the end of hot returns to the border and the elimination of the use of rubber bullets to suppress riots.
The repeal of the appeal Gag lawwhose spirit would be that of limiting freedom of expression and demonstration, has in recent years been one of the obsessions of the extreme left and nationalism. And even if it is true that the PSOE had committed to its partners to carry it out, the reform remained blocked because the radical groups considered the modifications that the government was ready to grant insufficient (a position in which Podemos is still installed).
That’s to say, The four reforms now included are precisely the four that the PSOE has vetoed until today..
Reluctance is particularly strong regarding the issue of rubber bullets. Because the Ministry of the Interior defended only three months ago that their elimination “would endanger the police and demonstrators”.
The timing of announcing the agreement suggests that the latest change of mind of the Sánchez government is motivated by the need to consolidate its fragile investiture majority, in a context of legislative paralysis and inability to advance budgets.
The precedent for another sudden change of opinion was just a week ago, when the PSOE moved from rejecting to supporting the PNV bill aimed at increasing political control over the CNI. And this after having transgressed another so-called red line: the parliamentary custom which prohibited secessionist parties from accessing the official secrets committee.
For a government at the mercy of nationalists, there can be no non-negotiable principles. Not even those whose violation results in the non-protection of security forces and intelligence services.
