In April 2018, the Provincial Court of Navarra convicted of abuse the five men -La Manada- who repeatedly raped – oral, vaginal and anal penetration, the sentence indicates – a young woman during the Sanfermines. The Court considered that it was abuse and not sexual assault because the victim “entered the premises suddenly and suddenly, without violence.” Reading the chilling account of the events, one can perfectly understand why the law of “only yes is yes” made consent its central nucleus, thus establishing what is the sexual freedom of women.
Abuse was eliminated with the understanding that a sexual relationship in which the woman has not clearly expressed her will will be considered a crime of assault. In this way, and following the guidelines of the Istanbul Convention signed by the European countries, it is established that they must not prove whether there has been violence or intimidation. The novelty of the Sexual Freedom law also lay in a change to the Penal Code that limits the interpretation of the judges. Before the reform, the crime of assault was subject to the existence of violence or intimidation, thus forcing women to prove their existence. Even with a kind of implicit obligation to defend himself, putting himself in even more danger.
The “only yes is yes” was the cry that presided over the demonstrations that followed one after the ruling of the Court, and which was later corrected by the Supreme Court. Consent is also understood as a necessary change in the gaze of a often patriarchal justice that continues to grant women a passive role and not as sovereigns of their sexual relations. Consent does not mean that the burden of proof is reversed, since the presumption of innocence continues to prevail.
The Ministry of Equality rejects the reform and indicates that the intention to return by separating the crime of abuse and aggression will lead to losing the fundamental figure of consent. But from the Ministry of Justice and the PSOE it is pointed out that socialism was a pioneer in its defense and that in no case is it going to disappear from the law.