The pulse between the government partners is maintained without anyone clarifying whether and to what extent last-minute concessions will be made. The leadership of Podemos closed this Sunday with the law “yes is yes” and the work of the Ministry of Equality, which is headed by the party’s number two, Irene Montero. In a law convened in Madrid designed to explicitly defend the norm and put pressure on the PSOE in full-scale law reform negotiations, the minister has preserved a certain ambiguity: “We are ready to reform the law, to accept the conditions that the majority supports the government must come together in the face of this right-wing offensive,” she said, before adding: “There is only one thing we will not back down on: approval will not be violated.”
That the legal model is based on ‘consent’ means, in Podemos’ discourse, that the crime of sexual assault remains one that is not subdivided according to whether or not there has been violence or intimidation; exactly what the PSOE is proposing to put into law to legally justify an increase in penalties. This will not end the reductions in sentences already in place for those convicted: they are irreversible. However, the Social Democrats want to make the reform to at least give the public the impression that something is being done about it and to avoid future penalties being lower than the previous legislation of just yes is yes.
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“We will not give up,” said the Secretary General of Podemos and Minister for Social Rights, Ione Belarra, during her speech at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. The event, attended by around 300 people, comes just two days after the deadline set by Socialists to reach an agreement or present the reform separately. Both Montero and Belarra have accused the PP of instigating the “offensive” and have avoided direct criticism of the PSOE.
Since the Sex Freedom Act (popularly known as the Yes-is-Yes Act) went into effect in October, there have been nearly 400 sentence reductions and twenty releases for past-convicted sex offenders who benefit from the new sentencing framework of the law. After a week of crisis in the coalition over the Justice Department’s proposal to change the norm, talks on Saturday and this Sunday have remained open, but they remain on the ground. The judiciary wants to increase the penalties again and distinguish between violence and intimidation. Equality accepts the increase but rejects it, believing it means putting the focus back on whether or not there is violence in sexual assault. In fact, under current law, the presence of violence can also mean an increase in the penalty: if the violence is extreme (which appears to be an aggravating circumstance) or if it has resulted in injury.
“These are very difficult days because of the pressure to go back to the previous model proposed by the PP,” denounced Montero. “We have been working non-stop from the first minute, proposing this urgent comprehensive action plan so that there is legal specialization, more psychologists, more specialized lawyers and more police officers to protect women victims of sexual violence. And on top of that, to analyze together with our government partner what happened with these minority court decisions, but which caused a lot of concern,” said Montero. The minister sees in this decalogue of equality measures a similar response to that given by the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2004 when the law on gender-based violence came into force and nearly 200 judges asked the Constitutional Court to approve it. So the minister said Zapatero didn’t withdraw or change the law, but reformed the mechanisms to implement it, the same thing United We Can can now require with the law that only yes is yes.
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“While no criminal reform may possibly avoid these judicial decisions to reduce sentences for sex offenders, we stand ready to reform the law and accept the conditions needed by the majority partner to collectively face this offensive against the law as government, just yes.” is yes, against the coalition government and against the progressive, multinational and feminist majority”, Montero admitted before qualifying: “There is only one thing that we will not give in to, […] Consent remains unaffected”. His ministry has not yet explained any details about his proposals to increase the penalties, as the PSOE wants to avoid lower penalties in the future.
Without directly mentioning the Ministry of Justice, a gesture also to try to keep the ongoing negotiations going, the head of the Equality Authority has accused the PP of “articulating the offensive against the law” and “offering its votes” in the political sphere. want to listen”. “This party that makes households tremble with sexist violence, a party that made us from minister to minister [Alberto Ruiz] Gallardón that the feminists had to throw him out on the street for daring to question our right to abortion,” he questioned. “Again, Mr. Feijóo: only yes is yes and not a step back,” insisted Montero.
At the end of her speech, the minister called for the fight to continue: “To defend the law, to stop this reactionary offensive and to win, as we have done on other occasions in this legislature,” she said in no uncertain terms the pulse with the PSOE and between the applause of the assistants.
Belarra also impacted on this idea of not taking a step back. “The aim of these attacks and this operation is for us to surrender. The easiest thing to do is give up, give up, get tired and give up. This act is meant to tell everyone who wants us to tire that we will not give up, that we will keep fighting to defend the feminist and social advances of this government,” she exclaimed.
The Secretary General of Podemos has similarly leveled charges against the PP, pointing out that the proposal to reduce penalties is just “an excuse” to go back to the previous model. The social rights minister has accused the law of having “an undemocratic DNA”. “They don’t accept the rules of the game and therefore the attacks will increase,” he warned. “Defending the law of the only yes means defending the sovereignty of the people, it also means protecting ourselves from legal blows. It should be remembered that in a democratic system, Congress and parliamentary majorities make the laws and the judges apply them, they do not twist them,” criticized the minister in an even harsher tone than Montero.
At a time of complicated relations within Unidas Podemos, members of the IU leadership were present at the event this Sunday, including the person in charge of the organization Ismael González, the equality adviser Carlos Sánchez Mato and the ministry’s communications director Clara Alonso.
The controversy comes at a particularly sensitive time for the party as well. Podemos is at stake in May’s elections to renew its presence in up to six regional governments and also its local implementation after some sluggish results in 2019. The elections are taking place with the room to the left of the PSOE in complete reconfiguration, facing the General and negotiations with Sumar, the project led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz, still very open. The solution to this crisis threatens to take its toll in the elections of a crucial year for the coalition.
“If you earn 9,000 million euros a year, you are not an entrepreneur, you are a usurer”
The general secretary of Podemos, who just 15 days ago described Mercadona’s CEO Juan Roig as an “unscrupulous capitalist”, this Sunday again lashed out at the big businessmen of the banks, whom she described as “loan sharks”. “greedy” and “greedy” in the same week that revealed the benefits of major financial institutions. “There are many people who insist that the rich cannot be named in Spain,” Belarra said. “We have said many times that poverty and inequality have first and last names, but wealth in Spain also has first and last names and we will continue to name them because no matter how much they say they are businessmen when you have 6,000 million earn euros. 9,000 million euros in one year, you are not a businessman, you are a usurer”, the Minister for Social Rights accused, citing the historical results of BBVA and Santander.
Belarra has again requested the cap on adjustable-rate mortgages, a demand that has been raised since the last quarter of 2022 by the government’s minority partner and that United Podemos (including Second Vice President Yolanda Díaz) have been insisting on the past few days after seeing those gains have known. “It is indecent that they increase the quota by 100, 200, 300 euros a month while continuing to make gold,” continues the minister in her offensive, whose party has decided to fight on the issue and to distance itself from the to distance PSOE. “So, while Ana Patricia Botín [presidenta del Santander] or the Lord [Carlos] towers, [del BBVA] They swim in 500 euro bills when our people are having a hard time, we will continue to name them and call them what they are: greedy and greedy,” concluded the leader of the group.