Just a few weeks after the Government attempted to capitalize politically on Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Spain, the PSOE and Sumar have decided to revive one of the most symbolic initiatives of their ideological program: the elimination of the offense against religious feelings offense.
The timing is hard to ignore. While the echoes of a visit that the Executive had hoped would serve as implicit support for its political project have not yet faded, the coalition partners are once again placing on the table a reform aimed directly at one of the few legal instruments that still protect public respect for religious beliefs.
The agreement between the PSOE and Sumar includes the repeal of the offenses of offending religious feelings and insulting the Crown, among other criminal provisions related to State institutions. The initiative had been blocked in Congress for years, but it has been brought back precisely at a moment when the Government is facing political difficulties and when the propagandistic use of the Pope’s figure has not produced the expected results.
In the days leading up to the papal visit, various sectors close to the Executive tried to present Leo XIV as a natural ally of the Spanish left’s political positions. However, the course of events largely frustrated that narrative. The Pontiff avoided any partisan identification and maintained a discourse centered on the traditional principles of the Church’s social doctrine, the defense of human dignity, the family, and religious freedom.
With the visit concluded without the desired political gains, the Executive is now returning to much more familiar ground: cultural confrontation with traditional institutions and, in particular, with the Catholic Church. The repeal of Article 525 of the Criminal Code has for years been a historic demand of the most secularist sectors of the left, who consider any specific protection against acts of mockery or ridicule of religious beliefs incompatible with their conception of freedom of expression.
Supporters of the reform argue that it is about adapting Spanish legislation to European standards on freedom of expression. However, critics point to a clear asymmetry. While criminal protections against attacks on religious beliefs—especially Catholic ones—are being removed, the legal system maintains and even expands safeguards for other groups and sensitivities deemed worthy of enhanced protection.
This is not the first time a Spanish Government has resorted to religious issues during periods of political wear and tear. Experience shows that cultural battles often provide a quick way to mobilize certain electorates when other matters become more uncomfortable. In this context, the revival of a reform that had been shelved for years seems to respond less to a legal urgency than to a political opportunity.
The elimination of the offense against religious feelings would mean the disappearance of a provision that, although it rarely resulted in convictions, expressed a basic principle: that coexistence also requires certain limits on gratuitous insult and the public humiliation of the beliefs of millions of citizens.
Its repeal will be presented as a victory for freedom of expression. For many Catholics, however, it represents a new episode in a political strategy that alternates seeking photo opportunities with the Pope when convenient and reactivating legislative anticlericalism when those photographs cease to be useful.