Calls in the Parliament of Navarre for the reform of the Moorish Law
- According to the Foral Parliament, “it is a law that cuts fundamental rights and freedoms and has an excessive punitive section, not characteristic of advanced democracy”.
On Thursday, the plenary of the Basque Parliament adopted the resolution tabled by Geroa Bai with the votes of PSN, EH Bildu, Geroa Bai and Arturo-Zurekin. UPN, PPN and Vox voted against. The resolution urges the Government of Spain to "reform the existing Law on the Protection of Citizen Security to be consistent with the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Spanish Constitution and in international law in compliance with the commitments made to form the current coalition government".
According to Geroa Bai, this law "cuts rights - meetings, demonstrations - and fundamental freedoms" - expression, information, union or strike - and has a "disproportionate" punishment section. The sovereign coalition considers that it avoids the "balance between freedom and security", questions "the principle of legality" and questions the "guarantee character" of public institutions. Reform would therefore be absolutely necessary to "decouple from any authoritarian action that does not correspond to an advanced democratic society".
They have also recalled that international bodies such as Amnesty International, the Spanish Refugee Assistance Commission (CEAR) or the Information Protection Platform have issued similar warnings and called for full reform of the law.
At the beginning of the legislature, almost all the parties supporting the PSOE and Sumar coalition agreed to an agreement to carry out this reform, but when it was carried out in the Congress of Deputies there was not enough consensus to carry it out.
Failure of the last reform session
In March 2023, the Spanish Government held the reform session. PSOE, Unidas Podemos and PNV presented the reform, but it did not go ahead, because EH Bildu and ERC did not consider it sufficient in the Internal Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies.
According to EH Bildu, “this standard collects fines for disobedience and disrespect for authority, allows the use of rubber bullets or balls and provides for the expulsion of migrants. We cannot allow this to be the case. ERC also spoke strongly about the “soft reform” that was to be done: "This reform guarantees the security of the police, not the security of the citizens, but allows the police to continue to tread the rights of the whole society without any sanction."
Nine years ago, pending the adoption of the Mordaza Law, the Council of Europe itself said that the law was going to be “disproportionate” and its “great concern”. “This law is a reactionary and conservative absurdity to criminalize street protest and criticism,”... [+]
