The 30 words that make up point 43 of the agreement between the Popular Party and Vox in the Valencian Community, and that limit the defense of equality to “domestic violence”, have unleashed a struggle between both parties that already splashes their national relationship, the negotiations that they maintain in other territories and even the pre-campaign of the general elections just over a month before the polls open.
Violence against women and the terminology that defines it -gender or sexist violence according to the PP; Domestic violence according to Vox- is currently the main stumbling block between the two main right-wing parties, which after sealing more than 150 local alliances last Saturday -some in important provincial capitals- are now immersed in at least three important territorial negotiations in Extremadura, the Balearic Islands and Murcia.
To the already entrenched differences of each enclave, it is now time to add a new element: the battery of measures presented by Vox to unify its criteria regarding violence against women. A catalog with which Vox seeks to stop the smear campaign that it claims to suffer after denying its number two for Valencia the existence of sexist or gender violence and that it now exhibits before the PP – which elevates the issue to “priority” with a view already set in La Moncloa – as a legislative model that deserves to be, at least, studied before reaching an agreement with Vox.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal. . Chiofalo EUROPE PRESS
It is a decalogue that synthesizes a good part of Vox's claims in terms of Equality since its foundation: it proposes to “support and assist victims of domestic violence, especially that suffered by women, children and the elderly”, identify to all rapists released by the yes is yes law or to prohibit the entry of “no man, regardless of the gender with which he perceives himself”, in spaces reserved for women, such as changing rooms or toilets. It also proposes tougher penalties for rapists, lowering the criminal age and including permanent imprisonment for cases of rape, in addition to guaranteeing that “no assaulted woman will be less accompanied or assisted based on the sex of the aggressor or aggressor or the gender with which self-perceived.”
“Defense of Women”
“The PP will have to say if they like it,” sources from the party's leadership express about the package of measures, which they presume is the most severe in legislative matters in defense of women and which proves that, unlike what defends the left and a part of the PP, Vox's commitment to Equality is intact. In fact, the party's position was established yesterday by Santiago Abascal: without denying the existence of the phenomenon, Vox does not accept or share the “ideological concept” of talking about gender or sexist violence.
But these words convince little or nothing in Genoa, where last Friday the alert was activated for this issue and it continues to sound despite the nuance. Is the PP willing to study Vox's proposal to reach a midpoint, either in the territories under negotiation, or in a hypothetical government? The voices consulted deny the greatest: «We already have a model. We're not going to change it.”
The tone of Alberto Núñez Feijóo with which he referred to the matter yesterday revealed that the PP does not intend to lower the bar again with Vox in terms of Equality as in the Valencian Community. The leader of the PP promises to make the “fight for equality and against gender violence” a “priority” and, in a transversal manner, shoots at both sides -the left and those who “call themselves to be on the right”- in defense of their equality plan: «We will not make a law like the yes is yes nor are we going to deny or stop fighting against a scourge that leaves fifty women murdered every year at the hands of their partners».