The Equality councilor of the town of Xàtiva accuses the far-right group of “wanting to take away the protagonism” of women by not finding any to defend their rights in the body that integrates 20 groups
The municipal plenary session of the City Council of the Valencian town of Xativa approved this Thursday the appointment of the representatives of the different political formations and associations to be part of the new Municipal Council of Women for Equality (Consell municipal de les Dones per la Igualtat) corresponding to the 2023-2027 mandate.
Although it was a purely informative point, the controversy arose when the councilor of Equality and president of the body, Amor Amorós, was incredulous given the fact that there is “organizations that do not find women to defend their rights.”
The councilor’s words were a veiled criticism of Vox, the only group with a voice in the Consell de les Dones that has appointed a man to be part of this consultative body: the spokesperson and only councilor of this party, Francisco Suárez. The councilor himself felt addressed and responded to Amorós by calling him “absurd“his comment and attacking the city’s feminist groups.”“The problem of not finding or not putting a woman on that commission is the aggressiveness and verbal violence that associations in Játiva have that are paid for with public money.”he stated.
The Vox spokesperson criticized that these groups do not invite far-right groups to their events, such as the pre-election debate between parties organized by the Xateba association in May. “We would not have to consent to the exclusion of us from acts of this type of association or to verbal violence against us or against the PP.”“Suárez warned. “The only one who has complained in the commission has been me, but the same insults have also been received by PP, we are talking about many votes,” he insisted.
The Consell de les Dones de Xàtiva is a consultative body that includes about twenty representatives of associations of all kinds, in addition to the political forces with representation in the city council. It is made up of the Association of Housewives Tyrius, Stepv, Xateba, Creu Roja, Aspromivise, the commercial associations Adexa and Xacex, the Youth Council, the School Council and the Fallera Local Board. All of these entities have appointed women as representatives.
“It’s hard to believe they can’t find any women.”
“I find it a little hard to believe that there is organizations that do not find women to defend their rights themselves. It seems that they want to avoid their protagonism,” the Equality councilor said in her speech. Amorós recalled that the main function of the Consell is “to implement mechanisms to empower women, because that contributes to equality, self-esteem, empathy and reduces gender violence.”
Amorós claimed the need for a space for women’s participation in the city’s public life, where they “debate and discuss issues of interest to women” and that “visualize their demands and expectations.”
The Equality councilor claimed that the role of the Consell de les Dones is to “implement mechanisms to empower women”
“The proposals of the Consell de les Dones are listened to by the municipal government although they are not binding, as demonstrated by the creation of the Casa de les Dones”, the councilor of choose the best person to defend women’s freedom.
For its part, Xateba has issued a statement to emphasize that those who participate in this body should share its objectives, the first of them, “ensure that the principle of equality between women and men is effective in all areas of private and public life.” The association emphasizes that the representatives have always been women and maintains that the fact that Vox does not find any women ““It says very little about the role assigned to them in their party.”.
“During the entire history of Xateba we have never been violent, although we have been very belligerent in the defense of women, their rights and their needs,” they defend from Xateba. “Aggressiveness is not our way of understanding citizen participation although We have been forceful, direct and sincere in our demands before any government municipal”, emphasizes the group, for whom “what is truly worrying is the disdain for one of the worst manifestations of inequality, which is gender violence.”
“The 500 votes obtained by Vox entitle it to a place in the Consell de les Dones, but also oblige it to contribute and contribute its grain of sand to the tasks undertaken by expressing its condemnation of sexist violence. Something that is difficult considering that their program proposes eliminating the Ministry of Equality, the courts of violence against women and any structure – institutional or citizen – including the Consell de les Dones, that works for equality and against sexist violence.” , they say.
“But we are well aware that when Vox defends that there is no need for specific policies for women or that they have special protection or that they be treated as a group, it has a clear political objective: to detract from women’s rights to the point of ridiculing them. “Invisibilize and abandon the victims of sexist violence. Reinforce that dangerous message that turns women into second-class citizens. Maintain the inequality that adds additional obstacles to the lives of all women,” Xateba’s statement concludes.