Senate greenlights contentious 'only yes is yes' sexual assault law reform

The Spanish Senate greenlighted the contentious revamped 'only yes is yes' sexual assault law on Wednesday with the support from the Socialists, the conservative People's Party and the Basque Country's PNB.

Overall, 231 senators voted in favor, while 19 were against it, and four abstained. As no amendments were made, the new legislation will come into force once it is published in Spain's Official Gazette.

Pro-independence Esquerra Republicana senators voted against the reform, while Junts abstained.

Sexual assault crimes that happen from now on will be trialed under this revamped legislation, however, those from before will still fall under the old bill that has been heavily criticized for reducing prison sentences.

"We are aware that more lenient sentences will be in place, but from now on, crimes will be charged with the adequate sentence to the severity of the acts committed," Spain's justice minister Pilar Llop said to media outlets in Congress.

Harsher sentences

The new legislation includes harsher sentences for sexual assaults committed with violence or intimidation.

The changes, driven by a deal between the Socialists, the senior coalition partner in the Spanish government, and the conservative People's Party (PP), were passed in Congress on April 21 with votes in favor from Catalonia's PDeCAT, while Esquerra and CUP voting against it and Junts abstained.

For the new reform to succeed, the Socialists left behind their junior coalition partner, anti-austerity Unidas Podemos, who were the original leaders of the law and who were against these newly approved changes.

Sexual consent and sexual assault

The previous version of the law set a new definition of sexual consent as it considered "consent when only it is understood when it has been freely shown via acts that clearly show the desire of a person, depending on the case," the bill reads. 

The Spanish Congress, back in May 2022, also greenlighted getting rid of the difference between sexual abuse and sexual aggression. 

The text considers sexual assault as any circumstance when "any action against the sexual will of a person without their consent has taken place." The attack will be considered rape, with higher sentences in jail, when the aggression "involves vaginal, anal or oral access, or entering bodily members or objects inside one of the first two holes." 

Violence or intimidation

The reformed text differentiates between sexual assaults committed with violence or intimidation and those without it. Lawmakers also added a new crime when proven that the victim had been annulled of their will.

If passed in Senate and officially comes into force, perpetrators of sexual assault could be sentenced to between one and five years, one more than in the 2022 bill. In the cases of rape, sentences will now be between 6-12 years, while before, it was between 4-12.