9:40 p.m., yesterday
Congress supports a Sumar initiative to lower the voting age to 16
Congress approved this Thursday a bill promoted by Izquierda Unida to lower the voting age to 16 years. The text has been advanced in the Youth and Children Commission promoted by the United Left deputy Nahuel González.
The proposal urges the Government to promote a reform of the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime (LOREG) to lower the age of access to the right to vote. The measure has been coordinated and worked jointly with the Ministry of Youth and Children.
The text was approved by 18 votes to 17, with the support of the progressive forces and the investiture bloc and the rejection of the PP and Vox.
By Alberto Ortiz
18:18 h, yesterday
The Electoral Board fines the Catalan Health Minister for his visits to hospitals during the pre-campaign
In a resolution approved this Thursday, the Central Electoral Board has sanctioned the acting councilor, Manuel Balcells Díaz, with a fine of 2,200 euros for violating article 50.2 of the LOREG by making several visits to Catalan hospitals and later disseminating them on the web. of the Department of Health and on their social networks.
Minister Balcells made a total of eight visits to hospitals between April 11 and 22, once the regional elections in Catalonia had already been called, which he publicized, which the Electoral Board considers a violation of neutrality. of the institutions after a complaint from the PSC.
5:50 p.m., yesterday
The Central Electoral Board fines José Félix Tezanos with 3,000 euros for the CIS flash survey during Sánchez’s reflection
In a resolution adopted this Thursday with a dissenting vote, the Central Electoral Board has approved the sanctioning of the president of the Centre for Sociological Research, José Félix Tezanos, for carrying out and publishing the Flash Survey on the Spanish political situation on 26 April, following a complaint filed by the PP.
The CIS published the results of this survey on April 28, promoted during the five-day reflection period that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, began to decide whether to resign due to the legal cases affecting his wife, Begoña Gómez, in which, in addition to other matters, voting intentions were asked.
The Electoral Board upholds the Popular Party’s complaint, considers that the CIS violated the LOREG and considers that its president should be sanctioned as the highest person in charge of the organization. Tezanos appealed this sanction, but finally the electoral body decided to go ahead with it and obliged him to pay the president of the CIS a fine of 3,000 euros.
By Alberto Orphan
16:15 h, yesterday
The Supreme Court rejects Baltasar Garzón’s allegations against the annulment of Dolores Delgado’s appointment
The Supreme Court has not admitted the annulment incidents that former judge Baltasar Garzón, Dolores Delgado’s husband, presented against the sentences that annulled the appointment of the former attorney general as prosecutor of the Democratic Memory room. The judges understand that Garzón is part of the process and, therefore, is not entitled to file annulment incidents.
The high court annulled a few weeks ago the appointment of Delgado as prosecutor of Democratic Memory in the highest category, ordering the Fiscal Council to repeat the process but taking into account a possible prohibition: whether his work would be hindered by the fact that Garzón has a foundation also dedicated to human rights and historical memory.
Writes Alberto Pozas
13:48 h, yesterday
Congress rejects censuring the State Attorney General
The PSOE, Sumar and their parliamentary allies rejected this Thursday the disapproval of the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, in the Plenary Session of Congress, a censure that Vox had raised and that the PP supported.
This issue was included in a Vox motion in which the Plenary of the Lower House has voted separately on each of its seven points, and all have been rejected.
The point that requested a legal modification so that the 12 members of the Judiciary are elected by judges and magistrates has also been rejected – with the abstention of the PP. The agreement between PP and PSOE to renew the CGPJ includes the new members making a proposal in this regard.
1:37 p.m., yesterday
PP, PSOE and Vox reject in Congress the recognition of Kosovo that the independentists demanded
The Plenary Session of Congress has rejected this Thursday the non-law proposal presented by Junts and supported by ERC, Bildu and PNV to urge the Government to recognise Kosovo “as a sovereign State”, which is the latest example in Europe of a unilateral declaration of independence. The initiative, debated last Tuesday, was rejected with the votes of the PSOE, the PP and Vox, while Sumar has opted to abstain.
Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence in February 2008, although Serbia still considers it an autonomous province. Spain, like Romania, Slovakia, Cyprus and Greece, still does not recognise it as a state, arguing that it was a “unilateral act” that did not have Belgrade’s approval. Junts argued in response to this that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in July 2010 that “Kosovo’s declaration of independence did not violate international law” and that there was no rule preventing it from proceeding with it. In its initiative, it stressed that Kosovo is “a democratic state governed by the rule of law with approximately 1.7 million inhabitants” and recognised as an independent state by 104 countries, including 22 EU members.
Information of Europa Press
13:26 h, yesterday
Feijóo acknowledges that Congress may “partially accept” the proposal of the Judiciary to reform the system of election of its members
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has admitted this Thursday that Congress will not have the obligation to fully accept the proposal to reform the system of appointment of members of the General Council of Power that has been agreed with the PSOE to unblock the governing body of the judges. “It can be accepted in its entirety or in part,” he said in an interview on La Sexta.
Feijóo thus assumes the words of the Minister of the Presidency and Justice and socialist negotiator, Félix Bolaños, who said last night on the Ser network that the proposal to reform the model proposed by the CGPJ must then pass the sieve of the Congress and the Senate, and there it can change for the sake of “consensus.” “On the basis of this proposal it will be analyzed, debated and, where appropriate, approved. “It is what we have agreed upon,” explained the minister.
Feijóo referred to the text of the agreement signed between the PSOE and the PP, and to the proposed law registered by both parties. “It makes no sense to ask the CGPJ to make a proposal to ignore it,” Feijóo said. The additional provision of the law that will come into force this July says: “Said proposal will be transferred to the Government, Congress and the Senate so that, based on it, the holders of the legislative initiative may prepare and submit to the consideration of the Cortes Generales a bill or proposed law to reform the system of election of judicial members for debate, and, where appropriate, processing and approval.”
Inform Aitor Riveiro
1:05 p.m., yesterday
Congress approves a government amendment to eliminate the Senate’s veto on the spending ceiling
This Thursday, Congress approved an amendment to the parity law that removes the Senate’s veto power over the spending ceiling, the first step in approving the budgets.
A few months ago, the PSOE and Sumar snuck an amendment into this law to try to remove from the Senate the power of irrevocable veto over the objectives of budgetary stability and public debt that precede the General State Budget, a blockage that the PP has already used twice this year given its absolute majority in the Upper House.
In their justification, PSOE and Sumar argued at the time that Spain needs a procedure for approving the objectives of budgetary stability and public debt “that is agile and appropriate to the importance of each constitutional body in the institutional system.” Now that law will go to the Senate and will be definitively approved again in Congress in July.
By Alberto Ortiz