Ironically, as the so-called “super election year” of 2023 begins in Spain, the left-wing minority government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is in serious trouble. What the difficult years of the pandemic and the effects of the war in Ukraine could not cause, the country’s first coalition government since the 1930s did to itself. And he did so mostly with a new sex-offense law that was supposed to provide better protections for women but unexpectedly opened the cell doors to dozens of convicted sex offenders prematurely. A storm of indignation has been sweeping the country for weeks. And it threatens to end the “left spring” in Spain.

A break in the governing coalition?

The set of regulatory rules, which were only passed last October after much debate and discussion, must now be urgently changed again. During the heated debates on launching a new reform process the two coalition parties were not only attacked by the opposition last Tuesday in Parliament. The Socialists of Sánchez and their partner Unidas Podemos, came to the words. It is characteristic that the Socialists passed their proposal only thanks to the opposition. The commentator of the state broadcaster RTVE saw a “rupture” of the coalition, other media even talk of “war” in the government palace Palacio de la Moncloa. According to the latest polls, in the parliamentary elections at the end of the year, the Socialists face the risk of annihilation. But it is not only the fiasco surrounding the “Yes Only Means Yes” law that is to blame. There are problems and scandals that burden the government more and more. In the Canary Islands, for example, justice is investigating allegations of corruption, including a former Socialist Party MP who was photographed in a brothel in just his pants. Then Ferrovial, one of the country’s largest construction companies, announced the transfer of its headquarters from Madrid to the Netherlands.

The government accused the head of the company, Rafael del Pino, of unpatriotic behavior. On the other hand, the opposition saw the move as proof of its charge that the government is scaring the economy. But the reduction of sentences and the granting of pardons to the Catalan separatists also did not appeal to many citizens outside this region. But the worst fallout for the government, which has sought to portray itself as a champion of women’s rights in a “super election year”, could come from the Sex Offenses Act. More than 700 sex offenders have had their sentences reduced since October. 74 have even been released early, including a serial offender in the Catalan city of Lleida who raped 17 women and whose sentence was reduced from 15 to 9 years. The opposition, of course, is wringing its hands. “We are afraid to go out into the streets and meet the rapists you released,” shouted MP Carla Toscano of the right-wing populist Vox party from the floor of parliament yesterday. For months, the partners of the governing coalition have been trying to defuse the dispute.

“We don’t want a return to a patriarchal system”

The Socialists saw the correction of the law as inevitable. However, Equality Minister Irene Montero of Unitas Podemos, where the reform came from, blamed the judiciary. He accused prosecutors and judges of herd behavior, which led to a “misapplication” of what was essentially a “good law.” The Union of Judges for Democracy rejected this statement as “unfortunate and inappropriate”. But what is this particular controversy about? Until the October reform, Spanish criminal law for sexual offenses distinguished between the milder penalty of sexual abuse (abuso sexual) and the more severe penalty of sexual aggression (agresión sexual), which was based on the assumption that a sexual act rather than the will of the victim was accompanied by violence or intimidation. The reform abolished the offense of “abuso sexual”. Since then the central element has been sexual aggression, which is always taken for granted when a woman has not expressly consented to a sexual act. Rape victims should thus be spared having to prove in court that a sexual act was carried out by force, which is often difficult and not infrequently humiliating.

But there is an issue here. As the offense of sexual assault now includes less serious offences, the minimum sentence has been reduced from 6 to 4 years, and in some cases the maximum sentences have also been reduced. And in accordance with the principle of the rule of law, which states that the most favorable law should always be applied to everyone, judges also reduced prison sentences even for offenders who had already been convicted. Unidas Podemos (UP) now fears that the Socialists in next months’ debates on the new law reform could give in to the demands of the conservative opposition and accept a return to the old conditions. “We don’t want a return to a patriarchal system where, as a victim, you were asked if you had closed your legs properly,” said Irene Montero. The unintended effects of the law put the government in a difficult position. The newspaper “La Razón” predicts a “crash” for Sanchez. The prime minister could hardly hide his anger. “In its implementation the law had some unintended consequences, although unintended consequences is in this case a euphemism,” he said. Several Socialist Party politicians rejected UP’s accusations and assured that the principle of consent of all parties involved in sexual acts would not be abandoned.