On Tuesday, a parliamentary commission’s vote to reject a proposed amendment to a contentious security law in Spain was opposed by Catalan and Basque parties who felt it did not go far enough.
The legislation passed in 2015 by a previous conservative government, known as the “Gag Law” by those who oppose it, allows authorities to levy hefty fines against unauthorized protests or in the case of attempts to obstruct home evictions.
It was believed that the government passed the law in an effort to quell social unrest and demonstrations against its austerity policies.
Amnesty International and other rights organizations are among the critics who claim it restricts free speech and infringes on the right to demonstrate.
The minority coalition government led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez proposed several changes to the law, including lowering some fines and reducing the amount of time suspects detained during protests may be detained.
However, the Catalan separatist party ERC and the Basque independence-supporting party Bildu, which typically assist the government in passing legislation, opposed the reform because it would allow police to continue using rubber bullets.
The law would still permit security forces to push back migrants at Spain’s borders, which was another issue raised by the two parties.
According to Bildu lawmaker Jon Inarritu, his party opposed the reform because it upholds “the repressive corpus of the previous “gag law””.
Before a general election that is anticipated for December, it appears difficult for the government to put forth yet another reform of the security law and have it approved by parliament.
“This reform would have been desirable,” government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez said at a press conference that followed the weekly cabinet meeting.
She continued, “It is unfortunate that a law that the public expected could not be passed.
This month, thousands of Spanish police officers demonstrated in Madrid against the proposed changes to the security law.
They were especially upset that the proposed reform would no longer classify filming or photographing police officers during protests as a serious offense.
