Yolanda Díaz, second vice president of the Government and leader of Sumar, presented this Monday a battery of proposals against corruption, among which is the prohibition of pardoning those convicted of corruption crimes. Sumar and Díaz herself, however, support and applaud the proposed amnesty law, still in progress, which involves completely exonerating those convicted or prosecuted for embezzlement—the crime of corruption par excellence—in the process Catalan independence movement. Vice presidential sources argue that what happened in Catalonia is a “political conflict” that “cannot be equated with corruption.”
Among its proposals, Sumar also includes that of limiting the capacity of public officials, that is, their special jurisdiction that implies that they are not tried by ordinary courts but only by previously established superior courts. He does it in the middle of the PP’s offensive against the Government for the Koldo case, the alleged corrupt network that allegedly collected commissions for the purchase of masks at the beginning of the pandemic and in which Koldo García, former advisor to former minister José Luis Ábalos, is being investigated. The former minister and former number three of the PSOE has not wanted to give up his seat as his party asked him to do, which, among other things, keeps him out of capacity.
Díaz has gathered his parliamentary group to present a package of measures against corruption, which includes the creation of a Council for the prevention of these crimes and behaviors. In the week in which the deadline to approve the new opinion on the amnesty law in the Justice Commission ends, Díaz has also been optimistic about the stability of the legislature. “There will be an amnesty law and Budgets, without a doubt,” he stated. The vice president and head of Labor has taken advantage of the unemployment data announced by her ministry hours before – 104,000 new jobs in the best February since 2007 – and has vindicated Sumar’s role in the Government.
The leader began her speech by explaining the measures that her group intends to promote from Congress. “At Sumar we want to go one step further. It is not about punishing corruption once it has occurred, but about putting mechanisms in place to prevent it from occurring,” he said, after calling it “very serious” that “some idiots” made money “taking advantage of public resources” in the first years. compasses of the covid-19 pandemic.
Díaz has proposed modifying the legislation on pardon so that it cannot be applied in cases of corruption. “In Spain, since 1996 more than 10,000 have been produced. [El expresidente del Gobierno] José María Aznar was the one who granted the most pardons for corruption, reaching 139,” stated the vice president, who has also called for limiting the pardons, to prevent them from being used as a kind of extra protection in this type of crimes. Sumar sources imply that this position against pardoning those convicted of corruption does not imply reviewing the support that Díaz gave in 2021 for the pardons granted to nine leaders of the process —four of them, convicted of embezzlement— or the support that Sumar now gives to the amnesty law. “When there have been specific cases of corruption in Catalonia we have been unequivocal. But when there have been accusations of embezzlement linked to the political conflict, we have never considered it corruption,” say sources from the vice president’s cabinet.
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Among the battery of measures, Sumar also includes the creation of an independent body from the Government, as exists in other democracies in the European environment, in line with what the Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe (GRECO) proposes, and that has the necessary resources.
In his speech, Díaz wanted to convey optimism about the negotiations underway with Junts for the approval of the amnesty law and also the Budgets. Without giving any details about the contacts, the vice president has assured that there will be agreement on both fronts: “They have voted for us for this. And, despite the pages of newspapers and talk shows that spend all their time drawing a world that is going to fall, we are going to have it,” she said.
“In the face of noise and uncertainty, more than ever we have to be the political force that gives serenity to citizens,” the minister also claimed in a speech in which she recalled the fundamental axes of her Government action—housing, reduction of the working day, health or culture—and in which she has also advocated, in the week in which 8-M is celebrated, for a feminism that says “it’s over” to sexist violence and abuses of power. Díaz has demanded that the PSOE approve a benefit of 200 euros per month per dependent child until the age of majority, a measure that is not in the government agreement signed with the socialists but that she considers the “best tool to reduce the inequality”. “These General State Budgets are key for Sumar,” the vice president concluded.
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