Overview
- Lawmakers voted down the proposal 178–33 after a heated plenary debate, with the Partido Popular abstaining.
- Vox’s bill sought to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 and to lengthen closed-regime internment for serious offenses.
- The text enabled expulsion of non‑Spanish minors based on a court sentence and permitted revoking acquired Spanish nationality prior to removal.
- The draft also tightened disciplinary rules in youth centers, adding penalties such as group separation, weekend-exit suspensions, and limits on recreational activities.
- Parties opposing the initiative labeled it racist and disproportionate as Vox argued youth crime is rising and linked it to illegal immigration, while official data show Spain’s juvenile crime rate is low overall.