The former President of the Government, José María Aznar, has accused the current President of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, of agreeing on the Citizen Security Law “with a gang of murderers.”
The former popular leader has referred to EH Bildu, the party with which the Government has negotiated the reform of the gag law, as the “representatives of the former ETA terrorism”, and has assured that the Government’s plan is to “remove terrorist prisoners ” from prisons in exchange for the Basque nationalist party supporting the General State Budget. “Agreeing on the Budgets for the release of imprisoned terrorists is crossing a red line,” he stated.
The agreement reached by the Government and EH Bildu this Thursday to reform, after nine years of validity, the gag law, includes changes in several key aspects of the regulations. Firstly, the interpretation of sanctions for “lack of respect for authority” is limited, and this category is replaced by “relevant insults or slander.” The sanctions for disobedience to authority are also reduced from serious to minor, and it is specified that these will only be applied if the order is legal. In addition, it proposes that the use of rubber balls by the police be progressively replaced by means that are less harmful to citizens.
“This in political terms is not making a mistake, this is called moral mischief,” he said at the opening of the II Madrid Youth Academy organized by New Generations of the PP. Aznar has criticized the pact, has insisted that the Government “is handing over the future of Spain to those who wish to destroy it”, and has stated that it is not just about the gag law, but about a “broader plan” that involves the exchange of favors to maintain political support. In his opinion, the reform of the law—also supported by Sumar, ERC, PNV and BNG—“is not about discussing whether or not the police can use rubber balls.”
The honorary president of the PP has also alluded to the filing of the case against three members of the ETA leadership involved in the murder of the PP councilor in Ermua, Miguel Ángel Blanco. The National Court determined this week that responsibility for that crime has expired, which for the former popular president is simply another example of how terrorists are being “taken out onto the streets.”
He has asked the young people of the PP to prepare to face what he described as “the most serious challenges” for democracy in recent decades, and he has been especially critical of the current relationship between the PSOE and parties such as ERC or Bildu, a those he has accused of “destroying the consensus of the Transition.”
Aznar concluded his intervention by defending the management of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, as a model of “freedom and less regulation”, and has also shown his support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas: “ Support for Israel has to be very clear because it is defending the democratic values of Western society and the Western world. Israel is not only defending its right to exist, it is defending the rights of all of us.”
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