Pedro Sanchez is convinced that the government coalition between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos will resist the shock by the law of ‘only yes is yes’. But that does not prevent him from transmitting his discomfort at the ways of the minority partner after the failures to agree on a reform of the controversial norm, which has caused more than 500 sexual offenders to have benefited from a reduction in their sentences. As soon as he got on the plane that took him to Vienna, the first stop of his first preparatory mini-tour for the presidency of the European Council that Spain will assume in July, the President of the Government launched this Thursday several darts to Podemos
“It would be interesting to know what proposal they handle, beyond the noise & rdquor ;, said the chief executive. Because until now, he has continued, “the only proposal on the table is that of the PSOE& rdquor ;, which introduces violence and intimidation as subtypes in sexual assault as a way to increase the penalties, something that according to the purple ones implies taking the focus out of the stone on which all the law had to rest: the consent of the woman.
The socialist leader has not given it enormous importance, trying at all times to take away the drama. But he hasn’t hidden his discomfort with the messages launched by Podemos and the Ministry of Equality, led by Irene Montero. The purple ones usually assure that they have transmitted new reform proposals (up to seven), without explaining what they consist of, and meanwhile they accuse the majority partner in the coalition of wanting to return to the “Penal Code of La Manada& rdquor; and to be, deep down, a “conservative” formation.
equality has reacted almost instantly to these words from Sánchez. Montero’s collaborators justify his attitude regarding his initiatives to change the law because this discreet attitude, they argue, is the best way to end up sealing a pact with the PSOE. “The proposal that we are going to make public is that of the agreement of the Government as a whole. Hopefully we will negotiate as soon as possible and we can present a proposal for an agreement that does not touch consent and that is what all the partners in the investiture are asking for. Reform the law of the ‘only yes is yes’ with the PP and Vox, who voted against the law itself, cannot be an option. I agree, I agree, and I agree,” sources from the ministry have pointed out, reports Violet Molina.
“We are two different parties with two ways of doing politics. I answer for my way of doing politics & rdquor ;, Sánchez has settled on the messages of Podemos. The reform of the law of comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom (official name of the law of ‘only yes is yes’), is for the PSOE a “technical” issue, not political, that it only seeks to protect women, and as such it must be approached. For this reason, among other reasons, the president completely rules out that he is going to cause a break in the coalition. “These are moments that are surpassed & rdquor ;, he said.
At the moment, Sánchez has before him a close government crisis, forced by the candidacies of the Ministers of Industry and Health, Reyes Maroto and Carolina Darias, for the mayoralties of Madrid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the municipal elections on the 28th of May. The president has explained that the relays will take place next March and that they will be limited, in principle, to the two affected departments, as EL PERIÓDICO published two weeks ago. The movements will be of much smaller magnitude than those carried out in the summer of 2021, when Sánchez removed heavyweights from the Executive as the first vice president, Carmen Calvo, and the Minister of Transport, Jose Luis Abalos. The socialist leader already has the names of the substitutes outlined.
The move to Parliament
The negotiation on the ‘only yes is yes’, after months of fruitless efforts to reach a pact between Justice and Equality, has entered into a new stage. With the registration of the socialist proposal in the Congress of Deputies, alone and without notifying its coalition partners, the conversations have now moved to the parliamentary groups. The president sees here some hope to attract support. Especially with traditional allies such as PDECat and Compromís, while ERC and EH Bildu At the moment they put as a condition to support the reform of the PSOE that there is a prior agreement with United We Can.
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The first debate, that of taking it into consideration, will take place in the plenary session of Congress March 7th, one day before 8-M, a temporary coincidence that Sánchez downplays. The toughening of the penalties for sexual offenders will go ahead in any case, yes or yes, since the PP has announced that it will support it, accusing the Government of “releasing rapists & rdquor; and presenting himself as the great defender of women.
Sanchez has questioned the “sudden feminist frenzy & rdquor; from Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party. Even more so in light of the recent controversy within the PP over abortion, with the leader of the popular raising blisters in the hard wing of his party (incarnated by ex-ministers such as Jaime Mayor Ear and Jorge Fernandez Diaz) and in the Catholic Church by arguing that the voluntary termination of pregnancy is a “woman’s right”, although “not a fundamental right”. Feijóo, Sánchez has concluded, is being forced to carry out “dialectical juggling & rdquor; so as not to hurt sensibilities.