The PSOE has joined United We can and the pro-independence parties to allow Congress to address a reform of the Penal Code with the aim of reducing the punishment that is currently applied to crimes of insults to the King, exaltation of terrorism, offense to feelings religious and outrage to symbols.

With their votes, the Chamber has admitted to processing a bill that, in essence, aims to prevent someone from going to jail for such acts.

The proposal put forward by United We Can advocates totally repealing this type of crime and allowing it, since it frames them within "freedom of expression" and "opinion." In fact,

Jaume Asens

has denounced that they are there as a "Francoist hindrance" and that it causes "tweeters" and "rappers" to be put in prison.

The PSOE is not so blunt in the general elimination of all these crimes, but it does defend that the reproach for most of them should be with "fines" and "not jail."

For this reason, the deputy

Odón Elorza

has underlined the "disposition" of the PSOE to undertake a "revision" of the Penal Code so that it guarantees the "proportionality" in the punishment and that it finds "a balance between the freedom and the security of the whole of the society".

In this sense, he stated that reality "has changed" and that there are concepts in the Penal Code "out of date" and "not in keeping with the times."

For what he thinks that there are jail sentences that are "excessive" or that simply "should not exist".

This debate on the limits of freedom of expression is a recurring issue in Congress in recent years, since different parties of the left, such as United We Can or ERC, have presented initiatives so that "tweeters and rappers" are not sentenced to prison sentences. It was precisely after the imprisonment of the singer

Pablo Hasél

that Unidas Podemos presented this initiative. It was also when the Government of Pedro Sánchez promised a review of these crimes in order to protect "freedom of expression" due to the increase in sentences, some surrounded by controversy, especially regarding artists or jokes on Twitter.

The Ministry of Justice has been working on this issue since February, so everything indicates that the processing of the United We Can proposal in Congress will be overlapped when the Government presents its proposal. By the words of Elorza, everything indicates that he will not repeal all the crimes that the purple ones want but he will look for a formula to measure the "real risks" with which to differentiate the danger between the joke on Twitter and the messages extolling terrorism that uses jihadism.

As for the proposed law that has been debated, the PP has firmly rejected it, assuring that what is intended to be guaranteed is not freedom of expression, but "impunity" for all those who want to "attack" national symbols. or make "apology of terrorism".

In addition,

Edurne Uriarte

has reviewed how crimes similar to those that are intended to be eliminated are in force in countries such as Germany or France.

Vox has also been very critical: "They want to be able to offend people for their religion to point them out, they want to offend the Crown to destroy it, they want to offend the institutions to kick them; they want to burn national symbols to burn Spain,"

Víctor Sánchez of the Real

.

In his argumentation on the approach to freedom of expression that United Podemos makes, Citizens' deputy

Guillermo Díaz

has pointed out the contradiction of proposing in a law to eliminate the glorification of terrorism "because ETA no longer exists" while there is another proposal to criminalize the glorification of the Franco regime. "Do you think you see Franco out of the corner of your eye on the street? Do you see him in the public? Do you hear him? If this happens to you, you do not need a law, but an exorcism," he said. In addition, in the line of PP and Vox, he has rejected the law because they want to impose a model to "be able to insult."

In favor of the United We Can initiative, in addition to the PSOE, the pro-independence and nationalist parties, ERC, Junts, PNV, EH Bildu, PDeCAT and the CUP, as well as Más País, have voted.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • United we can

  • PSOE

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  • Vox

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  • Bildu

  • Catalan Democratic Party

  • Spain

  • PP

  • Twitter

  • We can

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