The reform of the 'yes is yes' proposed by Podemos corrects some sentence reductions but maintains others

they caused numerous reductions in sentences for sexual assault or abuse, around 750 in total (at the beginning of March, the CGPJ already confirmed 721). In these cases, they would continue to be penalized in a milder way than before the reform, which has meant the greatest burden for the Government in this political course.

The prison figures contemplated in the amendments presented yesterday by Podemos are the same as last Thursday

CKD

and

bildu

led to the

Congressional Justice Commission

. They differ, on the other hand, from those that the

PSOE

presented to the Lower House with the intention that the reductions of the yes is yes not be perpetuated, something that can only be resolved by raising the penalties again.

The PSOE proposes to do so by returning to the pre-reform structure of yes is yes, although without touching the new definition of consent or recovering the division between abuse and aggression. Unidas Podemos argues that this undermines the importance of consent, by including violence or intimidation at the core of the crime. On the contrary, the proposal of the purple ones is that violence or intimidation be considered an aggravating circumstance, and therefore an external element to the essence of the crime. In this way, the consent would remain intact.

Regardless of how they affect consent, the practical consequences of both systems differ.. In essence, the socialist proposal returns to the penalties that were applied until last October. The basic crime of rape -sexual assault with violence and penetration- would return to the range of six to 12 years, which the yes is yes had left at four to 12. Here the solution of Podemos, ERC and Bildu supposes that the minimum rises to seven years, and the maximum to 15, figures that had not been so high since the current bill was approved.

Penal Code

in 1996.

Legal sources critical of the Podemos proposal consider that, in several cases, it implies “disproportionate” penalties. And this despite the insistence of Podemos in minimizing the importance of sentence reductions -in addition to attributing them to the judges-. Another example of this would be that of sexual assaults with violence and without penetration: before the yes is yes it entailed a fork of one to five years in prison, which Equality left at one to four and which now, with the amendments of Podemos, would rebound up to two to eight years in jail.

The position of the PP

On the contrary, the amendments proposed yesterday would keep the penalties low for the

yes in yes

in other cases. Legal sources critical of the Podemos formula consider that this reflects a “lack of coherence” of the reform, compared to the socialist option of returning to the previous situation while preserving elements of the

Yes is yes

. The proposal of

PP

to reform the law is close to the text of the socialists, which the

popular

They have already announced that they will support.

It would be the case of sexual assaults with penetration and without violence -formerly called abuse- to minors under 16 years of age.. The eight-year minimum was lowered to six with the

Yes is yes

, which caused numerous reductions in firm sentences. That minimum of six years does not rise in the Equality proposal, so it would continue to be the penalty from which the new sentences would start.

The Ministry of Equality maintains that this will not be the case, because the new definition of consent will mean that judges almost never understand that it is a consensual relationship. Thus, the sentence would actually start from above, from the same eight years that there were before. However, in the six months of application of the only yes is yes law, this has not occurred and the courts have applied the change and subtracted two years from many sentences that were firm.

In the field of minors under 16 -the age at which sexual consent is established-, the same sources maintain that a deficient wording would prevent the aggravating factor of violence from being applied to sexual assaults. Doing so would mean double-valuing that detrimental circumstance for the defendant, something that is not allowed.

Another consequence of the law of only yes is yes that the Podemos proposal does not address is the reduction of sentences for repeat offenders in crimes of sexual assault with violence or intimidation. The amendments do not change the fact that their sentences are between six months and two and a half years lighter than before the Penal Code was introduced.