Under lock and key: Junts blocks the Government's project and the PSOE halts the PNV's proposal on Official Secrets

Last April 5, the Official Secrets Law turned 58 years old. Approved in 1968, it is one of the few Francoist norms that remain in force despite attempts by Basque separatism to reform it. Currently in Congress there are two initiatives that could provide a way out for this desire: the Classified Information Bill and the PNV's bill. However, none show signs of prospering.

In the quarterly balance of the parliamentary groups published by Demócrata, both PNV as well as EH Bildu insisted on the need to repeal the current regulations and adapt it to the new times. “It is a repeated demand from our group that continues without response despite having the commitment of the Sánchez Government that a new Law of official secrets would be processed. This inaction clashes with recent decisions such as the declassification of documents linked to the 23F Coup d'état, which shows that mechanisms exist to do so when there is political will,” they conveyed to this media from the Basque Group EAJ-PNV.

In the hands of Junts

The breakup of Junts with the PSOE was not only a shot for the waterline of the coalition Government. Collaterally the rest of the partners who had an agreed agenda with the socialists have also been affected and which has now been frozen.

In the case of the PNV, the Classified Information Bill that was approved by the Council of Ministers last summer and that keeps accumulating extensions of amendments in Congress (given the certainty that it does not have the necessary support to continue its parliamentary processing). 

With this context, the Basque Group put on the table an alternative advanced by Demócrata to be able to move forward with the reform: unblock its bill (PL) on this matter.

The PSOE has the key

The PNV's proposal was taken into consideration in February 2024, only with the votes against of PP, Vox and UPN. The ‘jetzale’ argue that with this formula, Junts' amendment to the entirety would be avoided, which also already supported the Basque initiative in the first instance.

The PNV's path involves the Government "renouncing" its bill and the PSOE unblocking its initiative. The nationalists offer their PL as a basis on which to work with the Executive and the rest of the groups, thus overcoming the obstacle that implies the text comes from the Government to achieve the support of the Catalan independentists. 

Asked about this possibility, the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, specifies that although they agree with the need for a new regime on official secrets "they aspire to a more ambitious change".

They argue that while the PNV's proposal "is a technical reform of the 1968 law", the Government proposes its repeal and its replacement by a new regulation that "is comparable to those that the most advanced countries in our environment have".

Only a reform

The Official Secrets Act was approved in 1968 and since then has only been reformed on one occasion. It was in 1978, on the eve of the approval of the Constitution, and among other modifications, it introduced an element of democratic control: the possibility for the Cortes to access classified information. Adolfo Suárez is the first and only president who has managed to gain support to introduce changes to this norm inherited from Francoism.

After this chapter, attempts have followed, but none have come to fruition. Both on the part of the Executive in office, and from the opposition. In this sense, the PNV has historically been the one who has led the claim, although at times progressive groups such as the Plural Left have joined the cause, and in recent times, EH Bildu has also made this cause one of its most recognizable banners. 

Phantom draft bill

In the first legislatures of Felipe González, reforming the Official Secrets law was not on the agenda. But in the late eighties, some opposition groups began to see it pertinent to introduce a series of changes. In the summer of 1990, some media reported on the approval in the Council of Ministers of a new classified information bill. However, the text never reached Congress, an infrequent situation.

During 1991, on two occasions the populars asked in writing the Executive for the reasons why said project had not yet reached the Cortes. One of the responses indicated that after having "carried out the necessary internal procedures for its elaboration and approval (…) it will, consequently, soon be sent to the Cortes".

Four years after the deadline set by the socialists themselves, the project still had not passed through Congress. In 1994, the PP insisted once again on the reasons for the delay through a PNL in which it urged "the Government to send to the Chamber, within a period of fifteen days, a Bill on Official Secrets". In 1996, González left La Moncloa with no news on the matter.

Change of roles

Already with José María Aznar in Moncloa during a control session in April 1997, the socialist deputy Gustavo Suárez Pertierra asked the vice president Francisco Álvarez-Cascos, "when did the government plan to send to the chamber the official secrets bill?".

The number two of the Government assured that could not specify dates "because it is pending the deliberation and discussion procedures of the definitive text". In the reply, Suárez Pertierra confessed that he expected "a more concrete answer" and emphasized the urgent need for the project.

In his last turn, Álvarez-Cascos reproached the words of the socialist deputy: "about emergencies, less, because you have been governing for twelve years and have not been in any hurry to bring the official secrets law adapted to the constitutional framework." "We will bring the bill when it is finalized," concluded the then vice president.

However, like his predecessor, Aznar left the presidency and no draft bill of the official secrets law had been submitted to Congress.

Almost three decades later, in the Lower House there is a governmental initiative regarding it, but for the moment it does not seem to be among the priorities of legislative action.