Vicente Coll Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday,16January2024 - 17:09

The unusualness of the situation is already news as such: the PSOE and the Popular Party showing harmony and moving forward with an important parliamentary initiative, the first in a long time. The constitutional reform for the modification of Article 49 was activated this Tuesday after passing the procedure for urgent and single reading the taking into consideration. The change will go ahead definitively on Thursday after having the support of all parties except Vox, which supports the modification but accuses the government of "displacing" its pacts with the independence movement thanks to an initiative that does not establish enough "guarantees" with people with disabilities, which is why it will abstain.

The reform will finally respond to a historic social demand: the elimination of the term "disabled" in the Magna Carta and the replacement by "person with disability", as the group of people with disabilities has been demanding for years and as Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo committed themselves during their meeting at the end of December.

The popular leader celebrated the advance on Tuesday as a "model" reform, at the same time that he slammed those formations that intend to take advantage of the opportunity to propose the modification of other constitutional issues. In addition, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, highlighted how by "reforming" the Constitution "we are doing better", especially with this modification, the first of a social nature that the Magna Carta receives. The minister thanked the popular parliamentary group for the consensus reached.

The PP agreed to present the proposal jointly with the PSOE after the government promised to address this reform in a timely manner and closing the door for its parliamentary allies to raise a more in-depth debate on the Magna Carta.

However, several parties intend to present partial amendments to this initiative in the next 48 hours, before the reform is ratified again in plenary on Thursday. This is the case of Sumar and the PNV, which on Tuesday finalised their amendments: Sumar will request to include Valencian civil law in the Constitution and appoint a senator for the island of Formentera; the PNV, for its part, will register a package of amendments, including the recognition of the Basque right to decide and the deletion of Article 155. EH Bildu, for example, will not table amendments out of "consideration" and "respect" for the group of people with disabilities. The PSOE, in any case, remarked in the last few hours that this debate is limited "exclusively" to the reform of article 49 for the elimination of the term "diminished".