The priorities of Spanish Socialist Party? Abolish the criminal protection of religious sentiment. PSOE group leader Patxi Lopez announced in a press conference her intention to present a bill for repeal article 525 of the Spanish penal code which punishes those who offend the feelings of members of a religious confession. The project arrives in the wake of the controversy caused by a disrespectful representation of Sacred Heart of Jesus during a TV sketch on New Year’s Eve. A scene that had outraged many faithful and had led to a complaint by the Catholic association Hazte Oír against the two presenters and against the president of the Spanish public television network.
The proposal
The PSOE, the prime minister’s party Pedro Sancheznot only did he remain indifferent to the protests of the faithful, but he proved irritated by the popular reaction to the point of deciding to intervene at a legislative level to remove criminal protection of religious sentiment. Group leader Lopez stated in this regard: “We want to eliminate article 525 of the penal code and we do so because it hardly registers convictions and yet it is constantly used by ultra and fundamentalist organizations to persecute artists, activists, elected representatives, making them suffer criminal proceedings without any basis.” Article 525 of the Spanish penal code has undergone a series of adjustments over the years, also providing forms of protection for the feelings of non-believers. He currently expects them to be punished “with a fine equal to the amount of eight to ten monthly salaries those who, to offend the feelings of the members of a religious confession, commit, publicly, orally, in writing or through any document, mockery to their dogmas, beliefs, rites or ceremonies, or offend, even publicly, those who profess or practice them”.
For the Spanish government led by Sanchez, this protection would even represent a form of limitation of freedom of expression. After the complaints to the hosts LalaChus and David Broncano for the cow sketch, the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños he attacked the associations that remained outraged, branding the initiative as a “attempt to intimidate the ultra-right”. Hence the decision to revise the article of the Spanish penal code.
A secularist government
In 2018, on his first inauguration, Pedro Sanchez was the first prime minister in the history of Spanish democracy do not swear on the Gospels. During his time at Moncloa, his governments promoted a restrictive law on educational freedom in terms of education which was strongly contested by the concerted, equivalent of the Italian equal ones. There was the legalization of euthanasiawith recent intention to extend it to patients with mental illnesses. Sanchez also removed tax exemptions on the construction of churches.
In short, socialist governments seem to care little about the sensitivities of the Church and its faithful.
The decision to repeal the penal article which prosecutes those who offend religious sentiments just after theindignation of Christians for a television show on the Sacred Heart of Jesus goes in this direction, but will also concern the lack of respect towards other religious confessions.