Calls for Spanish government to initiate penal code reforms ‘once and for all’

Catalunya en Comú Podem, Catalan allies of the Podemos party who form the coalition government with the Socialists in Spain, have called on the Spanish justice minister to initiate the reform of the penal code “once and for all.” 

Joan Mena, spokesperson for the only Catalan party not aligned with one side of the independence question, said that Cat-ECP called on Pedro Sánchez’s executive to reform the crime of sedition to begin parliamentary proceedings sooner rather than later. 

The leaders of the 2017 independence referendum were given jail terms of between 9-13 years for the crime of sedition. However, the Socialist-led Spanish government gave the politicians and activists pardons in June, with the aim of fostering social reconciliation and engaging in dialogue on the conflict. 

Mena said that En Comú Podem has already done "the job it was supposed to do" and criticized that the reform proposal has been on the table of the Spanish government and the justice minister "for months." 

"We ask that we begin the parliamentary procedure required by the initiative,” Mena said. 

The Spanish Socialists have been open to modifying the crime of sedition for more than a year already. Spokesperson for the government, María Jesús Montero, said in January 2020 that the aim of the proposed reform was to "clarify" and adapt certain offenses to "reality" and the "current age."