The vox input in some local and regional government institutions has endowed a different weight, sense and significance to their ideological proclamations on the LGTBIQ+ rights and gender violence, among other topics. Before, from the opposition, the street or their minority parliamentary and municipal groups, some of their positions and their way of expressing them were already an insult to intelligence. And a provocation to fish for voters among the rearmed remnants (which unfortunately seem to be much more than residual) of the more traditional culture. But access to institutional positions opens up the possibility that provocative speeches against women’s rights or the diversity of sexual and gender options could go to symbolically stifle their defense from the institutionsoh effective restrictions on the exercise of these rights.
For the moment, a few weeks after the elections, and just a few days after the constitution of regional councils and parliaments, have been enough for Vox to deploy their ideology in the form of provocation. The refusal to stand up in a minute of silence for the victims of gender violence in Albacete, the contempt of Santiago Abascal towards the Istanbul agreement on this scourge, signed by Spain, the battles for symbols, the appointment as presidents of the Chambers of Aragon and the Balearic Islands of characters with a long history of outbursts in this field, the threat of legal action against the group Socialist of the Cortes of Castilla y León for hanging the teaches LGTBIQ+ on the balcony of their offices…
He PP has so far remained in a position of not compromise with the most foolish requests of the extreme right, or to avoid some profiles that are impossible to defend, such as the head of the Vox list in the Valencian Community. With the exception of precisely the hasty pact in this community, he has tried to prevent the access of Abascal’s party to positions in the Executive and in the programmatic pacts he has compromised, in these fields, more symbolically than effectively, as in the agreement of the Balearic Islands in which it is stated that work will be done to eradicate “sexist discourses” (but the “religious” tagline is added to satisfy Vox with an addendum that can be understood as alluding to Islamism) and it is said that the causes and «repeated profiles» of the aggressors but the term «gender violence» is excluded. But even so, the agreements to seat leaders of this formation in positions as prominent as the presidencies of the autonomous chambers offer spaces for the dissemination of their propaganda. Something that goes beyond spreading the message of your party for electoral purposes, since it can help legitimize, or relativize, hate speech and acts.
The defense of all people and groups whose rights and physical integrity are threatened for reasons of gender or sexual orientation is part of the basic democratic consensus in Europe, it is protected by transversal agreements of the forces that sign it and should not be part of the arsenal of weapons of political confrontation between ones and others, nor of the cards that can change hands in any type of negotiation. Instead of falling for Vox’s provocations for one’s own electoral benefit, what is appropriate is to monitor and denounce any violation of rights, ignoring their bravado.