REPORTSThe Government could take advantage of the express reform of sedition

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This Thursday, the vote on the General State Budgets (PGE) for next year and the approval of taxes on banks and energy companies has been joined by the express processing of the Penal Code to modify the crime of sedition and convert it into a criminal offense of "public disorder."

For Edmundo Bal , state lawyer on leave and spokesperson for Ciudadanos in Congress, "it is a real outrage that the Government of Spain kneels to the blackmail posed by the Catalan separatists. In fact, even with the latest calculations, he does not need the votes of Esquerra Republicana to be able to approve the General State Budgets.”

Edmundo Bal: "Converting the crime of sedition and turning it into aggravated disorders is leaving the Spanish Constitution without defenses" (Photo: EFE)

On the merits of the matter, “the Sanchez Government has based itself on a ridiculous formalistic interpretation , searching in the Penal Codes of our environment for the word sedition and its classification. In this study it has been proven that in Germany it is not called sedition. but it is rebellion that can be punished with up to life imprisonment. The same happens with Portugal, Italy or the US.”

In the opinion of this jurist, “this maneuver by the Phone Number List  Government to approve next year's PGE and remain in power has two important consequences . The first is that these Catalan separatists have said that they will do it again. They give them the possibility to do it with a reduced sentence.”



At the same time, Bal points out that “it is evident that the Government's initiative is to reduce the disqualification penalties so that Junqueras and, in the event that Puigdemont returns, could run in the next legislative elections. From this point of view it is as if nothing had happened and that day, October 1, 2017, had not really happened.”


In his opinion, “converting the crime of sedition into aggravated public disorder is leaving the Spanish Constitution without defenses against the attacks it may receive in the future, from any group contrary to the constitutional order. “It leaves the Magna Carta unarmed from any attack.”

Prosecutors criticize that it is a bill
The Association of Prosecutors, the majority association in the Fiscal Council, has spoken in these same terms, and after its meeting of delegates held in Segovia, chaired by Cristina Dexeus , it shows its concern about the form and substance of said reform.


Cristina Dexeus: “A reform of the crime of sedition of the significance and depth as intended, should be processed with the necessary calm, collecting reports from the CGPJ, Council of State and Fiscal Council” (Photo: Association of Prosecutors)

For Dexeus “it is worrying how the Penal Code is being used for different private interests, as is the case of the new crime of sedition that is decriminalized for one of public disorders that we still do not know how it will turn out.

At the same time, it ratifies the theses of the statement issued by this association: “A reform of the crime of sedition of the significance and depth as the one intended, to the point of proposing its repeal, should be processed with the necessary calm, collecting the reports of the CGPJ, Council of State and Fiscal Council”, he emphasizes.