Spain: vote for women’s rights breaks PSOE alliance with Podemos in Parliament

This Tuesday, one day before International Women’s Day, the two parties that make up the governing coalition in Spain, PSOE and Unidas Podemos, fractured in Parliament in a crucial vote for women’s rights: that of the reform of the law known as “only yes is yes” -because it believes that any physical contact that is not permitted is sexual violence-, and which, paradoxically, both parties have exhibited as a medal of the “most feminist government in the history of Spain ”.

Congress voted on Tuesday accept the parliamentary procedure for amending the lawbaptized as the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, which the PSOE presented alone and without agreement with the Ministry of Equality, in the hands of Podemos, who was the one who drafted and presented the law of discord.

Because since October last year, when it came into force, the law of yes and yes has been causing an effect opposite to the desired one: by canceling the abuses and modifying the types of sexual offences, the corresponding penalties have been modified and, as a consequence, more than 700 sex offenders Those who are serving a sentence have asked for their sentence to be reviewed and have been favored by an involuntary reduction of the days, months or years that the new regulation allows them.

This Tuesday, in an aggressive and reproachful debate -especially between government partners-, the admission to parliamentary treatment of the reform of the single yes and yes law was approved with the votes of the PSOE, those of the People’s Party (PP ) and those of citizens.

United We Can voted against

we can vote against. The Catalan (Esquerra Republicana) and Basque (Bildu) pro-independence parliamentary groups also gave the thumbs up. Vox’s far-right abstained.

There were 231 votes in favour, 58 abstentions and 56 against.

It took months for the government of Pedro Sánchez to recognize them terrible side effects of the law that PSOE and Podemos included in their coalition agreement when they started governing Spain together four years ago.

“It is evident that, within a few months of its entry into force, the law has had some undesirable effects in its application. I say undesirable effects and I fall short, because no one, neither the Executive nor the parliamentary groups that approved it, had the objective of reducing the sentence of any aggressor ”, acknowledged the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, one month ago.

The new law no longer distinguishes between abuse and aggression and expands the behaviors considered crimes by establishing that aggression does not need violence or intimidation to be punished.

However, the change that the PSOE presented this Tuesday in Parliament returns consider violence and intimidation when evaluating convictionsaspect that Podemos celebrated having eliminated from the penal code.

Because until the one yes is yes law was passed, crimes against sexual freedom were punished according to whether they were considered abuse or assault and according to the violence or intimidation they involved.

The so-called “Montero law” -because it was the star proposal of the Ministry of Equality of Minister Irene Montero, of Podemos- swept away these considerations, place consensus at the center and considering that those who have experienced any type of sexual violence should no longer prove that they have been victims of violence or that they have resisted it.

The socialist amendment voted in Congress on Tuesday aims to “save” the conviction gap caused by the yes-only law by more severely punishing violent sexual assaults.

“You have to be consistent, you have to be responsible. The best way to protect this law is to correct those mistakes that it obviously has and which the PSOE deeply regrets,” said Andrea Fernández, MP and PSOE Equality Secretary.

“The Socialist Party did not want the agreement. She preferred to shake hands with the People’s Party, which has always voted against feminist advances to return to the penal code of violence and intimidation. I think it’s bad news for the women of this country,” said Minister Irene Montero before entering the session.

“I did what I had to do. I fulfilled my obligation, which was to submit a technically feasible proposal. Now it is already in the parliamentary process”, were the words of the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, upon arrival in Parliament.

The parliamentary spokeswoman for the PP, Cuca Gamarra, attacked the government of Pedro Sánchez: “They are not assuming political responsibilities,” she said.

“We must be clear: the debate that accompanies us today has nothing to do with the social alarm that has been triggered by the release of more than 74 sexual predators or the reduced sentences of more than 730 and those who remain,” Gamarra listed .-. The socialist group has not presented this reform due to the social alarm generated by the trickle of prison benefits and releases from which some are benefiting. Nor did he present it out of remorse. The only cause of this initiative is the electoral alarm. Neither more nor lessHe added

equality right

Perhaps to ease the bitterness in the face of 8M (8 March, International Women’s Day) crossed by clashes between government partners, Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet approved this Tuesday in its weekly meeting a project to have more women in the boards of directors, electoral lists and decision-making positions.

“If women are half of society, they must be half of political power and economic power,” Sánchez teased over the weekend in a meeting with militants ahead of the electoral campaign for this year’s elections.

“Some will consider this excessive, but those of us who believe in feminism consider it right,” she added.

In Spain, women occupy only one relevant position out of four.

The proposal, which came out of the presidency’s office, establishes that women should occupy 40 percent of the decisive positions.

Only 27 percent of the companies listed on the IBEX 35 – the reference stock index of the Spanish stock exchange – respect this premise which, according to the government, ceases to be a recommendation to become an obligation.

“With this bill, we have moved from the recommendations, principles and best practices in force up to now to establishing obligations that make it possible to achieve and consolidate effective gender equality”, said the First Vice-President and Minister of the Economy, Nadia Calviño, when this Tuesday she presented the draft that the government will bring to Parliament during the press conference that ministers usually hold after each weekly cabinet meeting.

Despite being a subject linked to the Ministry of Equality, Irene Montero was not present.