Last week, the Minister of Justice and Public Administrations, Gabriela Bravo, in a presentation on the perception of prostitution in Valencian society, assumed that the modifications to the Entertainment Law and the Highway Law would soon be approved “to increase our sanctioning capacity” and move towards the evolution of prostitution. A proposal that the socialists presented alone without the endorsement of their partners to debate by single reading (without the possibility of generating a debate or being able to amend the text).
The problem is that the last plenary session of the legislature is already heavily loaded with the debate and approval of three laws and a decree and it is not clear that there is more room for other proposals (despite the fact that there will be no control question to the president). Even more so when there is no consensus around it.
From the socialist group it is insisted that their intention is that it can be debated, although they admit that the agenda is already very tight. However, they understand that it would be a way of rounding off a legislature where the Socialists have made the abolition of prostitution one of their banners.
The problem is that this bet has not generated consensus within the Valencian left, since Compromís and Unides Podem have shown themselves to be in favor of a broader debate since they understand that the prohibition will not serve to end this problem and that we must bet by other types of transversal and support measures for women. The fact that they want to hold a debate for the abolition of prostitution generates tensions on the left at the gates of the 8th Parliamentarian in the final sprint of the legislature and by single reading does not favor the agreement either. “There are other priorities,” they explain from the Unides Podem group.
In the week of 8M, it is one of the debates that divides the feminist movement and that generates the most debate. Not even in the very survey that Gabriela Bravo presented and that gave her the opportunity to explain the legislative changes that her party has proposed in parliament, it is clear which is the response that generates the most consensus when it comes to trying to end prostitution. In fact, almost a third of those surveyed (31.6%) would “agree or totally agree” in legalizing and regulating the conditions for the exercise.
On the contrary, 38.1% agree or totally agree with “prohibiting prostitution and punishing clients and intermediaries, but not prostitutes” (the PSPV would be in this model), while 36.6 The remaining % think that women should also be punished.
Although the division of the movement that is reflected in other latitudes with different calls is not such in the Valencian Community, surely in the unitary march next Wednesday (as happened last year) proclamations for and against the abolition will be heard of prostitution.
