The PP tries to justify the agreement reached yesterday with Vox to govern the Valencian Community, by virtue of which the far-right party will have the vice-presidency with the powers of Culture, in addition to the ministries of Justice and Agriculture, in which the party of Santiago Abascal imposed the term intrafamily violence to refer to sexist or gender violence. An issue that the PSOE and other parties on the left take advantage of to question the commitment of Alberto Núñez Feijóo in the fight against this type of violence.
For this reason, the deputy secretary for Social Policies and Demographic Challenge of the PP, Carmen Fúnez, wanted this Friday to distinguish both concepts to reiterate the “unshakable” commitment of the party in the fight against gender violence. “They are different things and recognizing one does not mean covering up the other,” Fúnez pointed out in an interview on TVE.
Point 43 of the agreement between PP and Vox, the only one in which reference is made to this issue, says: “We will defend the rights of families and we will promote policies that will seek to eradicate intra-family violence, especially those suffered by women and children, guaranteeing equality among all victims”. It is obvious that the document uses the term ‘domestic violence’ commonly used by Vox instead of gender violence or sexist violence.
“The Popular Party is very clear that intra-family violence is one thing and sexist violence is another and they are not incompatible because they are two realities that unfortunately exist in our society and that we have to put an end to both,” retorted the popular leader when asked by this point.
For the popular leader, all efforts must be made to “end domestic violence and, of course, sexist violence”, because, as she stated, “terribly harsh situations are generated in both cases and it is important to put an end to these realities”.
Asked about the differences between the two types of violence, she indicated that “family violence is that which occurs between family members due to existing family relationships and gender violence is that which is exerted on women due to the fact that being a woman on the part of the partner or ex-partner”. Fúnez has guaranteed the PP’s “unchangeable and unquestionable” commitment against gender violence, “always supporting the victims, both women and minors.”
But, in his opinion, it is necessary to “have a much more open vision of reality and they are two different realities that exist in our society.” “We have the possibility, we have the capacity and we have the means, we must have them, to be able to fight against this terrible reality that exists, which is sexist violence, but it is not bad to recognize, on the contrary, I think it is very positive, to fight against these situations of injustice and cruelty that occur within families”, indicated the deputy secretary of the PP who recalled that Podemos did not support the Pact against Gender Violence in the previous legislature.
The Popular Party campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, already assured yesterday that there would not be “not one step back” in the next regional government that the PP and Vox are going to form in the Valencian Community in the fight against “the violence that is exercised about women.” “We will see in the end how everything is left, we are going to go step by step. What is much more important than the name of things, which I am not saying is not important, is that not even a step back is taken,” defended the popular leader.
As soon as the agreement was known, the PSOE accused the PP yesterday of assuming Vox’s theses on gender violence, which they branded as “deniers” and this same Friday, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has indicated that the pact in Valencia between “the party of Mr. Feijóo and the party of the abuser”, alluding to the Vox candidate for the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Flores, convicted of mistreating his partner and who will go as head of the list for Valencia to Congress, supposes “a setback ” for democracy and for “women’s rights”.
In this sense, Bolaños has reproached the PP for having, by virtue of the pact, given the powers to manage precisely the equality policies between men and women to Vox, which he has referred to at all times as the “party of the abuser”.
