The Spanish Government has once again defended its proposal to repeal the offence against religious feelings, contained in Article 525 of the Criminal Code, on the grounds that “ideas or beliefs are not holders of fundamental rights”, but rather that it is individuals who hold those rights.

This is stated by the Executive in a response to a parliamentary question posed by an opposition speaker in relation to the prevention of radicalisation and attacks on religious freedom. In its response, the Government insists that the legal key, according to case law, is that “beliefs cannot be subjects of fundamental rights”.

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Believers already protected by the Constitution

In this regard, it stresses that the protection of believers is already guaranteed through other legal instruments, such as the fundamental right to religious freedom (Article 16 of the Constitution), criminal protection against incitement to hatred (Article 510 of the Criminal Code) and the protection of the right to honour through civil and criminal legislation on defamation.

Despite being announced several months ago, the process of reforming the Criminal Code is currently at a standstill. According to news website Religión Confidencial, the government has admitted that steps are difficult given the executive’s current parliamentary weakness.

‘Criminal Code needs to respect freedom of expression’

The executive argues that the repeal of Article 525 responds to the need to adapt the Criminal Code to the concept of freedom of expression set out in Article 20 of the Spanish Constitution, as interpreted by the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

According to this doctrine, freedom of expression protects not only moderate or socially acceptable opinions, but also harsh criticism, satire and even expressions that may be provocative or offensive to certain religious sensibilities.

This said, the Government points out that criminal protection of the exercise of religious freedom will remain in force through Articles 522 to 524 of the Criminal Code, which guarantee that anyone can practise their faith without intimidation, threats or coercion.

Opposition from Catholics, evangelicals, Jews and Muslims

For the past year, the Christian denominations that form part of the Interfaith Dialogue Table of Spain, together with representatives of the Jewish and Muslim faiths, have publicly expressed their opposition to the repeal of the offence against religious feelings.

In a joint statement, they expressed “serious concern” about a comprehensive reform of the Criminal Code that includes the elimination of Article 525.

While recognising the importance of freedom of expression, the faith groups consider it wrong to present this offence as a threat to that right, underlining that freedom of expression is already constitutionally guaranteed and must coexist with other fundamental rights.

Warning against normalisation of hate speech

“While we defend the right to freedom of expression, as citizens and believers, we also defend the right of our faithful to be able to live their faith in a climate of respect for religious feelings”, they said. The rights to religious freedom, freedom of conscience, and moral dignity and integrity should always be defended with the law.

The signatory religious groups warn that the normalisation of insults, stereotypes or ridicule towards religion can foster a climate that leads to threats, aggression or violent acts against believers and places of worship, a phenomenon that, they say, is growing in various European countries.

They therefore call on the government to open a “respectful dialogue” through the Advisory Commission on Religious Freedom and appeal to political representatives to act in good conscience to comprehensively protect the fundamental right to religious freedom, above ideological positions.

The joint statement was signed in December 2024 by the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE), various Orthodox and Anglican churches, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain and the Islamic Commission of Spain, among others.