Agreement to reform the Gag Law. Cartoon of 06/10/2024 in CTXT
Organic Law 4/2015, passed on 30 March, on the protection of citizen security and popularly known as the gag law, came into force on 1 July 2015 under the government of Mariano Rajoy.
You can read it in the BOE.
The Socialists promised to repeal it immediately. As soon as they won the elections. It was a social emergency, a brutal attack on freedoms, the socialists claimed. They promised many times, they would get rid of it immediately. One minute into government, they shamelessly declared. When they began to govern in coalition with Podemos, they continued to promise its repeal. Almost ten years later the infamous gag law is still in force.
Well, there is already an agreement to reform it, not to repeal it.
For months, the government has negotiated with EH Bildu and ERC on the reform of the 'gag law', focusing on the four key points that blocked an agreement a year ago. They have agreed to phase out rubber bullets (it remains to be seen what new thing will replace them) and to modify the Law on Foreigners in six months to avoid hot returns. There is also talk of reducing penalties for disrespect and disobedience to authority, considering them minor offences. It is not known whether the reduction will be a softer blow to the head.
So find yourselves a comfortable chair because this is going to be a long time coming and there is a lot of talk about everything and very little in the way of details, not even concrete dates for the various deadlines are known yet.
A minimal facelift. One of the most harmful aspects of the gag law is the presumption of veracity of agents, which will not be eliminated in the reform. It only specifies that the testimony must be "coherent, logical and reasonable". This criterion has allowed many sanctions related to legitimate protests to be imposed and maintained.
EH Bildu and ERC celebrate the agreement, while the PSOE seeks support from other parties to approve it. Although the PNV and Junts are willing to negotiate, Podemos considers the changes to be insufficient and will propose more ambitious amendments. Again.
The changes also include reducing the time for identification at police stations and the elimination of penalties for taking images of police officers, another point that was a loophole for at least arbitrary sanctions and even attacks on journalists. The agreement is supposedly intended to soften the law and bring it into line with international standards.
The Gag Law has been used recurrently since its approval in 2015 to demobilise organisations, activists, journalists and citizens in general who mobilise in defence of human rights.
Already in 2021, the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters, called on Spain to reform the gag law and further recommended that it assess the "repressive potential" of this law, which is supposed to be about citizen security.
