The Government arrives broken by the 'yes is yes' to the 28-M campaign

Unidas Podemos and PSOE reopen their war by law of only yes is yes. The purples presented this Monday amendments that try to dismantle the initiative that the socialists raised to correct the lowering of penalties for sexual assaults in the norm. This movement -expected- leads the government coalition to a new public confrontation like the one that took place in March, where belligerence and tension put coexistence within the Executive branch in one of its most delicate moments.

The calendar is turning out to be diabolical in the PSOE's plans to reduce the “social alarm” generated by the review of sentences for sexual offenders. Because the debate and vote on the admission to process of his proposal was held on the eve of the feminist commemoration of March 8 and because now it turns out that the parliamentary resolution of the controversy will take place at the gates of the regional and municipal election campaign .

The Socialists will be able, on the one hand, to go to the elections with the defense of having acted with determination, even imposing themselves unilaterally on Podemos, to respond to this problem. But, on the contrary, it has the drawback that the partners of the government coalition will reopen one of their worst crises and they will go to those elections again open on the channel.

To the delight of the PP, since the law of only yes is yes is once again placed at the forefront of the political and media agenda and with the expectation that it will leave the image of a broken Executive at such an important moment. And the PP, in addition, will be key with its votes. Well, the PSOE needs your support to win the fight, although the popular ones have also presented their amendments.

Calendar for the reform

The calendar that the socialist sector manages is that the reform of the Law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom -as it is officially called- is approved on April 20 in the Plenary Session of Congress and that it is ratified a week later by the Senate. In other words, just 15 days before the start of the electoral campaign. In this way, the PSOE would move the issue as far away from its start as possible.. And it is that, if this calendar does not prosper and suffers a minimum delay, the change of the norm would arrive alive until the pasting of posters.

In any case, the first milestone will be the vote in the Justice Commission, where it will have to face the counterproposal presented by United We Can. At the latest, that will take place on April 18.. If the appointment is not advanced.

That day PSOE and Unidas Podemos will confront on paper their two models to reform the law of only yes is yes. Until now, that clash had taken place in private, in negotiations between the ministries of Justice and Equality. However, once the text of the department led by Pilar Llop became the PSOE bill, it remained to be known what the specific proposals of Podemos really were, of the seven that it said it had presented to the PSOE, to prevent the Socialists attack the “heart” of the law by eliminating “consent” as its axis.

The Podemos amendment proposes placing violence and intimidation as “aggravating circumstances” to punish sexual assaults with more years. Instead, the PSOE proposes that these be a key factor in determining the threshold between the highest and lowest penalties.. Right now, “extreme” violence is contemplated as an aggravating factor in the norm, but not violence and intimidation as such, which are considered to be an intrinsic part of any sexual assault.

The text of Podemos is essentially identical to the one presented a few days ago by ERC and EH Bildu. It is in the “same line” after months of working in a “coordinated” manner. That is why it is very likely that they end up transacting to join forces.

The consent

The presentation of amendments by Podemos yesterday fanned the embers, never extinguished, of an issue that ignites the spirits of the government coalition. The purples once again pressured the majority partner to accept their changes and warned that they have to “decide” if they allow “consent” to continue in the “center” of the Penal Code or if, instead, they support a “regression” with the PP » on women's rights.

For the national leadership of the PSOE, the amendments of its partner and ERC and Bildu are “traced”, although they avoid referring to it being a “joint strategy” against them, and “they do not avoid the problem”.. «When one proposes some amendments it is because they recognize that there is an error and something must be changed. What happens is that these amendments do not correct that error; Of course, they do not avoid these undesired effects, ”said the party spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, yesterday.

From Ferraz they insist that the proposal they have made to recover the Penal Code prior to the approval of the law is the only thing that can “eliminate the possibility of lowering the sentences of sexual offenders and rapists.”. To which they add, in a direct message to United We Can: “It is important not to confuse closure with feminism.”

In the PSOE they take it for granted that they will need the votes of the PP, but they have no intention of maintaining any contact to tie up that support. “They will be the ones who have to explain it,” they argue about the possibility that it will not finally go ahead due to a change of position in the main opposition party.

That possibility is remote. The PP already supported the admission for processing of the socialist text in Congress. In addition, he already presented a proposal in autumn that was really similar to the one that the PSOE ended up registering. However, the popular have drafted 14 amendments that fundamentally make adjustments in relation to minors who commit this type of crime. They also raise some penalties or rectify errors generated by previous modifications of the Penal Code.