Less parliamentary immunity for ministers

THE Minister for Justice, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, is working on a law proposal that would bring the number of people in Spain who have parliamentary immunity down from 17,621 to just 22.

Gallardon is of the opinion that parliamentary immunity should be restricted to just a few members of the government and the royal family as they have the powers of state.

Should the law be passed then the only people to enjoy this immunity would be the president of the government, the presidents of congress and the senate, the presidents of the constitutional tribunal and the supreme tribunal as well as the 17 presidents of the autonomous communities. “This makes 22 people in total” commented the minister in an interview with the El Pais newspaper.

Gallardon went on to point out that these legal reforms could not be completed by an ordinary legal proposal as the immunities are written into the constitution and, as such, cannot be modified by a legal reform but rather by a reformation of the constitution itself.