The reform of the law of only yes is yes has left deep wounds in the Spanish coalition government of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, but both parties have publicly ruled out a break. The president himself, Pedro Sánchez, denied on Friday the possibility of a schism, and United We Can not contemplate abandoning a government that is now its main showcase. All this, although Minister Irene Montero has lost control of her law and the PSOE has presented a reform on its own to put an end to the release of sex offenders. The key lies in the fact that, before the municipal elections and in several autonomies on May 28, the image of the divorce would take its toll on both parties, the proximity of the 8-M Women’s Day also weighs heavily, and Podemos aspires to negotiate with the PSOE to avoid that the PP is the support of the reform. The controversy remains unresolved, but no one threatens to break away and Podemos retaliates by staging its anger, as the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, did yesterday, who accused the PSOE of being a “conservative” party and of having fallen prey to the fear.
Belarra has also suffered a horribilis week and has had to give in with its Animal Welfare Law, which ultimately excludes hunting dogs. Meanwhile, Unidas Podemos and the PSOE appeal to the agreement on the law of only yes is yes, after the incendiary exchange of statements between the ministers Irene Montero and Pilar Llop. Montero herself assured Público yesterday that she is willing to give in and that she has presented six proposals to the PSOE, with the red line of consent.
The president of the United Podemos parliamentary group in Congress, Jaume Asens, yesterday clearly ruled out an exit from the coalition government. He said that a hypothetical pact between the PSOE and the PP to reform this law “would not be a reason” to leave the Executive, although it would be “unprecedented” because it would mean taking the baton away from the Ministry that promoted the law. “Amending the plan from another Ministry is not usual,” he said, referring to the Ministry of Justice. He stressed that the coalition “is strong” and should not project a fracture at this time, according to what he said on RNE. He opened up to negotiating tweaks, without touching the backbone of this law: consent to have sexual relations.
The PNV does believe that the PSOE proposal maintains a single criminal type, sexual assault, which will exist as long as there is no consent, although from there different graduations are established in the sentences depending on whether there has been violence. Hence, he has anticipated his support for the processing of the bill, although he will raise his own amendments.
Ione Belarra agreed on the same message as Asens: seeking the agreement, but protecting the consent. He denounced the attacks on Irene Montero and assured that they “did not expect” that the PSOE “would be afraid”. “We did not expect that the PSOE would propose to return to the Penal Code of La Manada, and force women to show wounds so that something is judged as sexual assault, to tell the judge if we resist or to explain if we close our legs properly. I did not expect that, ”she said, adding that in general terms, in terms of legislation and progress, it is Podemos who“ defends the changes ”, while the PSOE becomes a “conservative force”. “It happened with the cap on gas, with the rise in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage, with the Family Law and it happens every day with the Housing Law that has not just been approved,” she launched.
From the PSOE, its spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, said that the Socialists are going to “negotiate and talk” to correct the law and avoid sentence reductions “without feeding the noise.” López made these statements at the presentation ceremony of the candidate for Mayor of Ermua, Juan Carlos Abascal, and attacked the PP for presenting itself now as the “savior” of this law when “it does not save anything, because it is against the law , as it is against all those that have allowed progress in rights”.