A single vote saved Podemos from yet another Senate backlash on one of its star bills in the week of 8-M. The Government has avoided the House of Lords’ rejection of the Animal Welfare Bill – officially known as the Veto – in a stunning vote. An absolute majority (133 votes) was required for their success, but the PNV’s veto of a law it believes is invading regional powers has 132 support from the PP, Junts, Vox and various regional and regional senators progressive minority parties received against 128 the Socialists, ERC, EH Bildu and Agrupación Socialista Gomera, in addition to three abstentions. The PP Bank, located just behind the seat of Minister for Social Rights Ione Belarra, came to celebrate the result with shouts and applause for half a minute until the President of the Chamber, Ander Gil, announced a The euphoria ended when we remembered that a vote was still necessary. Another veto, in this case the PP, also got 132 votes in favor to 131 against and two abstentions. The law will be passed in Congress in the coming weeks after incorporating several amendments.
The executive’s minority partner has dodged a snub in what would have been a very hard political blow for La Moncloa, but Podemos in particular, when less than 24 hours had passed since his defeat by the PSOE given the legal reform was just a yes is a yes. The uneasiness of many of the government’s habitual allies at the urgency and content of the norm has left the Socialists outnumbered on several occasions in a chamber without Podemos senators. The consequence was the approval of several changes, apart from those agreed on by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos for technical improvements. Belarra’s assertion that anyone who voted against the law would “side with the perpetrators” stirred up sentiment not only from the right but also from parties such as the PNV, Compromís, the Cantabrian Regionalists and the Teruel Exists and More madrid . Basque nationalist spokeswoman Nerea Ahedo, visibly upset, approached the minister’s blue seat as soon as she finished her speech. The PSOE, as has already happened in Congress, did not applaud Belarra.
If successful, the veto would have had enormous symbolic power: the last one approved dates from December 13, 2010 and was lodged against the general state budget for the following year, the last by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as president. Thirteen years later, the Ministerial Law of the Secretary General of Podemos was about to reset this counter to zero. For practical reasons, the veto victory would have meant that the bill returned to Congress as it came out of there. The government already had to suffer its approval at the beginning of February with 174 votes in favor, 167 against and 7 abstentions. If the PNV veto had received another vote, Parliament would have had to give its final approval within a period of two months by an absolute majority or, after that period, by a simple majority. The first option was a thorn in Ferraz’s side as it would have brought his debate closer to the May 28 regional and local elections, which the PSOE was unwilling to do. The socialist sources consulted claim that the main ruling party would have postponed the debate on such a sensitive issue until at least June, when the PSOE already faced Podemos to exempt or through hunting dogs and other dogs used for tasks such as livestock tending and rescue work the state security forces and organs.
The five-hour debate left a carousel of complaints from across the parliamentary arc. The more than 6,000 allegations and 450 proposed amendments summarize the concerns the law raised. “I have absolutely no doubt that all of us in this House are committed to the welfare, defense and care of animals, which does not equate to supporting this bill. Those are two very different things,” said the spokesman for the PNV, a party that believes the drafting of the Animal Welfare Act and reform of the Criminal Code against cruelty to animals – which also overcame two vetoes from the right – “represent flagrant invasion contests”. The process has caused great concern, according to the majority of the parties, and it was dealt with urgently, which no one understands,” noted ERC’s Adelina Escandell. “You’ve shown us once again why we can’t trust you. We’ve had a dozen calls from you of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos with crossed allegations,” lamented Pablo Gómez Perpinyà (Más Madrid). “Rightly yes, but not like that. Misnamed workhorses or bullfights are left out… This law does not deserve our support because it neither protects nor Animal welfare is,” explained Carles Mulet (Compromís).
“You have a lot of pride”
The sharpest criticism came from the right. “Spain doesn’t need more laws that produce undesirable effects and cause problems instead of creating them, they have a lot of arrogance,” Bienvenido de Arriba lamented. But another PP senator, Jorge Domingo Martínez, was the one who went far the furthest, accusing the government of “condoning” and “enabling” bestiality with the Penal Code amendment. “This law does not decriminalize the bestiality that the far-right want to spread, but it does increase their persecution,” Belarra replied. The minister has also made it clear that no one will be fined if a rat is found in their home and killed, and that households with pets like hamsters are not required to get rid of them.
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Belarra defined the Animal Welfare Act as one of the laws “that have the most heart in the legislature” before apologizing for not applying to hunting dogs. “I apologize again to the people who see the consequences every day at the end of the hunting season when many dogs are abandoned or because puppies are buried in quicklime,” he said, picking up again on the hunting sector — there are about 750,000 Hunters in Spain – with animal cruelty. After passing the Senate exam with the minimum score, she went to one of the Women’s Day celebration marches.
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