The differences between the partners of the coalition government on how to combat the “undesired effects” of the law of the only yes is yes seem, at this time, insurmountable. Equality and Justice have spent months negotiating the formula for a problem that all parties describe as complex, but the PSOE has decided to take a step forward alone by announcing that it will present a bill in Parliament to modify the rule, an initiative that he will move forward, he has warned, with or without the approval of United We Can.
After a weekend in which Moncloa stressed that steps were going to be taken to change the law, early on Monday the Ministry of Equality warned that there is no possible solution to stop the sentence reductions for already convicted sexual offenders, it denounced the “incorrect application of the law” and proposed an urgent plan to, among various measures, specialize the different legal actors and increase the number of forces to protect the victims. But he ruled out a legal modification.
Immediately afterwards, the PSOE rejected this exit and assured that it is necessary to correct the articles to avoid future downward sentences, not revisions, since the Penal Code prevents this movement.
Justice sources explained to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, from the Prensa Ibérica group, that once it has been verified in these months that the application of the norm has “undesired effects”, they have promoted a proposal to make “surgical” and “technical” adjustments exclusively on the part of the law that has not worked as expected.
Specifically, the sources speak of “legislative surgery” to raise the minimum sentences and reduce the range of sentences, so that attacks are not punished more laxly than with the previous Penal Code. The use of intimidation and violence would cease to be aggravating to be part of the type punished.
From Equality they look at this proposal with suspicion, since they estimate that it will place the victims again before the need to go through a “probationary ordeal”, and they insist that they will not allow consent to be touched as the central nucleus of the law. In addition, they insist that the unwanted effects of the law are the result of an “incorrect application of the norm” and that the pressures they are receiving in the Government come from an “offensive” by the political, judicial and media right.
Isabel Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Executive, said in an interview on RNE that in this matter “it is not convenient to frivolize or give false signals to the public.”
The different socialist leaders have made it clear throughout the day that the paradigm of consent will not be modified and that they have been working hand in hand with the department of Irene Montero, in “full harmony”, although socialist sources consulted by this newspaper they emphasized the need for “self-criticism”.
Thus, the appearance at a press conference of the PSOE, Pilar Alegría, has widened the distance between the partners of the Government.
Alegría has assured that her party will present “as soon as possible” a bill in Parliament to reform the organic law for the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, whether or not they have the approval of United We Can, although she has assured that there is a ” maximum” readiness to reach an agreement.
The proposition, he specified, would be based on the proposal put forward by the Ministry of Justice, a formula that they consider “faster” and that has “good criminal lawyers.”
In this context, from the PP they have demanded an “immediate modification to repair the dignity of the victims”. The popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has offered the PSOE the votes of his bench for the reform: “I guarantee the rigor that its Council of Ministers does not have, the sense of State that its parliamentary partners do not have and the sensitivity that they have not shown with the victims.
Leaders of different political parties of different signs, such as Cs, Compromís or IU have stated that they consider the modification of the law convenient.