Three years ago came into force one of the most repressive laws of the Government of Mariano Rajoy, better known as the "Gag Law".
The rule, which was appealed before the Constitutional Court, was approved only with the votes of the Popular Party and Union of the Navarrese People in the chamber, while the rest of the groups expressed their intention to repeal it if there was a change in the parliamentary majority.
"Among the measures contemplated in this Law still in force, there are two sanctions that have aroused social unrest and rejection, as they constitute a violation of freedoms and put at risk the social mobilizations that have been increasing during the economic crisis in protest against cuts policies. "They say.
One of them is the stoppage of evictions.
Those who attempt to paralyze an eviction, would be in breach of two regulations: the one on "preventing any authority from exercising legitimate functions in compliance with administrative or judicial decisions" and the one referring to "disobedience or resistance to authority". "
Both fined with an economic penalty ranging between 600 and 30,000 Euros.
The Platform of Affected by the Mortgage alleges that in this way they "punish the poverty, the solidarity and the protest of those who try to paralyze the eviction".
"First hand we have examples of what this Gag Law has entailed and how the Government Delegates of the day have worked on its application without contemplations, as is the case of the peaceful march against male violence that took place in Totana. and that culminated with a sanction towards the Councilor for Equality by order of Francisco Bernabé, the case of the Pro-Burial Platform of Murcia that accumulates more than € 50,000 in sanctions, or interventions in the peaceful concentrations of the affected neighbors / neighbors / as for the route of the AVE in the municipality. "They affirm from Ganar Totana.
Entities such as Amnesty International join the petition for the repeal of this law on the grounds that it constitutes "a violation of rights" since "it has resulted in tens of thousands of fines related to the exercise of freedom of expression, assembly and information. "In these three years of the Gag Law, around 45,000 fines have been imposed just for lack of respect for the authority.
This provision grants great discretion to the agent of order, since the interpretation is under his consideration and leaves even more in evidence that this rule provokes defenselessness, demobilizes, persecutes and criminalizes activists, journalists and social movements that carries out protest actions peaceful.
