Introduction & Updates in National Landscape
Feminist issues have starred in the agenda of the Spanish extreme right in January. In the first place, as a result of a modification in the medical protocol for abortions in Castilla y León, the only autonomous community in which the extreme right-wing Vox party is part of the government, together with the Popular Party.
On January 12, the vice president of the community, Juan García Gallardo, from Vox, announced a change in the protocol by which doctors would be obliged to offer women who want an abortion to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus, taking Hungary as an example. . The announcement was criticized even by the president of the community, who the following week rejected what Gallardo had said, stating that it would be the women who came to have an abortion who could request to hear the heartbeat of the fetus or the doctors offer it to them. The change in the protocol was responded to by the central government with threats to go to court if anti-abortion measures were applied in the community.
The Castilla y León announcement was accompanied by a campaign by all the far-right groups asking, “why are you so scared that mothers have the chance to hear their child’s heartbeat?” https://twitter.com/NorbertoPico/status/1613899819478650883 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1614896927103143937 https://twitter.com/juanggallardo/status/1614957051616141312 https://twitter.com/desdelamoncloa/status/1614693637446680580/photo/1 https://twitter.com/voxes/status/1613874879744593920
The other big issue related to feminism was the Law on sexual freedom, known as ‘only yes is yes’, which, among other changes in terms of sexual crimes, merges the crimes of sexual abuse and assault, putting the lack of consent, and not if there was physical aggression, as a key for the act to be criminal. Another of the changes was to modify the minimum and maximum sentences, a change that in many courts caused sentences already issued in previous years to be changed, now applying the minimum sentence. During the last months and especially in January, as a result of several releases of sexual offenders, the law only if it is yes has been a workhorse of the extreme right against the government of PSOE and Unidas Podemos, especially since the government left the Ministry of Equality, directed by Irene Montero, spouse of Pablo Iglesias, who is the black beast of the Spanish extreme right, making Montero the target of serious insults within Congress by Vox deputies. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1615279898784071681 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1617781220406079490
At the legislative level, the Democratic Memory Law, called by the extreme right as the “new Gag Law,” also continues to provoke reactions from the extreme right. In January, Vox registered an appeal against the law in the Constitutional Court. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1613519030484090880
Also in January, the effects of the law began to be felt with the announcement by the Government of the opening of a disciplinary file against La Falange and Falange Española de las JONS for the march held on November 12 in homage to Francisco Franco and Rivera’s cousin. https://www.elsaltodiario.com/ley-memoria-historica/abren-expediente-sancionador-falange-espanola-actos-del-20n
The month has continued with several important appointments for the extreme right. One of them was the demonstration on January 11 called by farmers from Almería, Alicante, and Murcia in Madrid for the limitation of the transfer of water from the Tagus to the Segura river. The distribution of water among the Spanish communities has always been an issue used by the Popular Party and the extreme right to win votes. The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, also continues to carry out a political campaign on this issue. https://twitter.com/Santi_ABASCAL/status/1613224311845699584
The other big event was a demonstration held on January 21 against the Government of Pedro Sánchez, called by a hundred groups of the extreme right under the slogan ‘For Spain, democracy and the Constitution.’ The demonstration, which was attended by several tens of thousands of people, was also attended by politicians from Vox, Ciudadanos, and Partido Popular. https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1616767236508880898 https://elpais.com/espana/2023-01-21/decenas-de-miles-de-personas-se-menifiestan-en-madrid-contra-el-gobierno-de-sanchez.html
The war in Ukraine has been another of the main issues for which the extreme right has criticized the government, especially with the new arms shipment made in January. https://twitter.com/NorbertoPico/status/1617795113702551553 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1618510412345114625 https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1618944232026411009
The attack on two churches in Algeciras, investigated as an alleged jihadist attack, has also been used by the extreme right to demand, once again, xenophobic policies. https://twitter.com/fedelasjons/status/1619961817698304007 https://twitter.com/EspacioArdemans/status/1619977562419232768 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1619001034097201154 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1618543600224317441
Within the far-right parties, the two main milestones have been the announcement by the Falange that they will stand in the municipal elections of Seville, and that of Vox that appoints, once again, Rocio Monasterio as a Vox candidate for the regional elections of the Community of Madrid. https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1619788580532125696 https://twitter.com/vox_es/status/1615622890925293568
But if the name of Rocío Monasterio and her spouse, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, has given rise to talk this month, it has been as a result of a dispute within the extreme right following an interview conducted by the extreme right-wing journalist Federico Jiménez Losantos in EsRadio to Monasterio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dky8K8Ql6OQ&abchannel=esRadio The interview, in which the interviewers laughed at Monasterio for his defense of the anti-abortion measure announced in Castilla y León, was followed by Espinosa de los Monteros with messages on social networks in which he accused the Losantos chain of making a campaign against Vox. https://twitter.com/ivanedlm/status/1615683647574515713 And that in turn was followed by a video issued by Losantos criticizing and revealing the participation of the Vox couple in the Mexican sect El Yunque. https://www.elconfidencial.com/comunicacion/2023-01-25/losantos-vox-pp-guerra-mediatica3563157/
Transnational Activities & Group Interactions
In the last days of January, Hacer Nación held a Summer University in which components participated, in addition to Gustavo Bueno, vice president of Denaes, a Vox foundation, the French far-right activist Thais d’Escufon, spokesperson for Generation Identitaire. https://www.eventbrite.es/e/entradas-universidad-invierno-hacer-nacion-27-y-28-enero-503499890727
For its part, Democracia Nacional held a conference with the name Nueva Reconquista in which, in addition to having the appearance of its leader, Pedro Chaparro, after his time in jail, the Italian Roberto Fiore, from Forza Nuova, was invited https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615281804801462272 https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615944458306027524 https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615944957851828226 https://twitter.com/DNacional/status/1615945677833666561 https://twitter.com/ForzaNuova1997/status/1617127721192271872
The Falange and its leader, Manuel Andrino, have also met with the French Laura Lussaud from Les Nationalistes, and with Roberto Fiore from Forza Nuova https://twitter.com/ManuelAndrino/status/1616519725613285385
The Falangist Youth of Spain and the Spanish University Union, both linked to the Falange, have also received a delegation from the Romanian organization linked to the Camarazii army in Majadahonda to pay homage to Ion Mota and Vasile Marin, members of the far-right Romanian organization Guardia de Iron. The Falange leadership received, for its part, members of the George Manu Foundation https://twitter.com/JFalange/status/1614971094364028929 https://twitter.com/lafalange/status/1614229490162610176 https://www.publico.es/politica/iu-madrid-condena-homenaje-miembros-organizacion-afin-nazismo-majadahonda-ayuntamiento-majadahonda-permite-homenaje-miembros-organizacion-afin-nazismo-falange.html
For her part, Rocío Monasterio attended the V National Convention of the Portuguese Chega party. https://twitter.com/VOXEuropa/status/1620150831919013900