Infinite reform, 8th year of the gag rule. Cartoon of 11/03/2023 in CTXT
Another shameful anniversary. The Organic Law 4/2015, passed on 30 March, on the protection of citizen security, popularly known as the gag lawwhich came into force on 1 July 2015 under the government of Mariano Rajoy will soon be eight years old.
This rubbish has been applied for three years under a pepero government and almost five under administrations that claim to be progressive, the first one did not have time (despite having announced that it would be urgently removed) as it consumed the legislature of the motion of censure.
During the first seven months of the application of the gag law alone, 40,000 sanctions were imposed.
According to data published by the Ministry of Interior, since the Citizen Security Law came into force on 1 July 2015 until 2020, a total of 1,155,727 sanctions totalling 815 million euros were imposed. By year, 2020 was the toughest in sanctions, with nearly 376,000 sanctions amounting to more than a quarter of a million euros following the state of alarm decreed due to the coronavirus pandemic(Source). (Source).
The Ministry of the Interior of the most progressive government in world history spent in 2022 some two million euros on 25.539 extendable steel batons. The Mossos have had them since 2016 and the Guardia Civil since 2018. The National Police have been asking for them for a long time to reinforce their equipment for public order thugs, increasingly militarised. This is enough to give us an idea of how the non-repeal of the gag rule that was so vilified in the campaign has been evolving.
To give you an idea of the extent to which the PSOE claimed to be against this law, in its 2015 campaign document, in which it promised its immediate repeal as soon as it came to power, it said this about it:
"Reasons to say NO to the gag law"
PSOE campaign document, without waste:
- "It is a return to the police state"
- "Its aim is to punish dissidents, those who protest"
- "It enables the police to exercise exorbitant powers of inspection, retention, investigation, repression and punishment, by criminalising certain conduct".
Refresh your memory with this nice list of the promises of that express repeal that never was.
And its reform is still stuck. According to Joaquรญn Urรญas, professor of Constitutional Law, "the essence of the law empowers the police to fine for disobedience or disrespect. The PSOE does not agree to eliminate this, which is supposed to be the most serious part of the law, which turns it into a gag".
Related: What is the gagging law, why is it a danger and what does it mean to repeal it?
The Interior Committee votes today on the reform of the Gag Law and everything points to the fact that it will be another fiasco and there will be no more reform during this legislature. So they will be able to promise it again for the next elections and there will still be people who will applaud with their ears the promise of repeal reform number 1000.
At this rate they will leave me with no ideas to "celebrate" their sad birthdays.
02/01/2022
28/03/2021
17/07/2019
