At least 646 convicted sex offenders from Spain have had their sentences reduced or been released due to the seemingly unintended consequences of a new leftist law on sexual consent.
The ‘Only Yes Is Yes” law was designed and put forward by Spanish Equality Minister Irene Montero, a member of the leftist group Unidas Podemos, and was supposedly meant to toughen laws around sexual consent when it was passed in last year.
However, an unintended consequence of the law, because it did away with the distinction between “abuse” and the more serious category of “assault”, has led to at least 646 convicted sex offenders receiving reduced sentences, as Spanish legislation allows new legislation that could benefit a convicted prisoner serving a sentence to be retroactively applied.
The 646 number comes from a partial review published by the newspaper El Mundo this week, which notes that as many as 65 sex offenders have been released from prison entirely due to the effect of the consent law.
Socialist Spain: Children as Young as 12 Can Change Gender Under New Law https://t.co/sFIp4mnQoF
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 19, 2023
In at least seven cases that have been brought before the High Court, the victims of the offenders are said to have been children.
The Spanish Supreme Court has also seen 26 applications from sex offenders to have their sentences reduced due to the consent law, with ten having been reduced so far.
Last month, the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) vowed to reform the law in order to stop the sentence reductions, while Minister Montero has blamed “fascist” and “sexist” judges for not applying the law in a proper manner and defended the law.
The effects of the law are one of the major criticisms levelled against the government by the populist party VOX, which introduced a motion of censure against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez this week.
Santiago Abascal, the leader of VOX, has made it clear that he wishes to use the motion of censure to force an early national election and topple the leftist government.
“We are not going to feign democratic normality in the face of the worst government in history,” Abascal said.
Spanish populist party VOX has put forth a motion of censure directed at PM Pedro Sanchez in an effort to force an early election. https://t.co/mdMhU1YQBC
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 28, 2023
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