Spain’s
right wing Partido Popular leader and Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has
achieved a notable feat. He has managed to have all the socialist parties in
Europe declare war on his government.
The
subject that is stoking anger across the continent is the decision of the PP
Government to repeal PSOE’s abortion legislation and to introduce its own bill
that is seen as being discriminatory against women. The European socialists
under Party of European Socialists (PES) have answered the call from PSOE to
support them in fighting this legislation. PES is made up of all the major socialist
parties in Europe including the UK’s Labour Party.
Rajoy
cannot even count on it being a left versus right confrontation so that the
European parties of the centre right will come to his aid. Indeed members of
the Partido Popular in Parliament, including the outspoken PP MP and former
minister Celia Villalobos whose husband is a Rajoy guru, are against the move.
Four PP presidents of regional governments in Spain oppose this legislation, “La ley de Gallardón”, being introduced by the
minister of the same name. Two PP mayors, both doctors, have publicly
questioned the law. True to form Rajoy is stamping down on any voiced
opposition from his party’s ranks.
There
have already been protests outside the Spanish Embassy in Paris and as the
campaign grows expect more of the same as people across Europe publically
denounce Rajoy. The PP has agreed to ban women from opting freely for
abortions, outraging pro-choice campaigners who say the move will take the
country back to the 1980s.
In the majority of
European countries, abortion is freely available in the first 14 weeks of
pregnancy. After that abortion is only allowed if there are serious risks to
the mother or the foetus through illness or severe anomalies. The PP seeks a
far more restrictive set of regulations: prohibiting the mother from having any
part in the decision making and prohibiting abortions in many cases of serious
malformations or foetal anomalies.
The PES president,
Sergei Stanishev stated: “This law by Spain’s Conservative Government is not
against abortion, this is a law against women. I will do everything possible to
mobilise PES Member Parties to lend their weight to this fight for the rights
of women, in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.” He added: “women’s rights will be
a central issue in the European election campaign”.
Stanishev thanked
PES vice president Elena Valenciano of Spain’s socialist PSOE for the letter
calling for support from PES against the Spanish PP Government’s proposal to
drastically curtail a woman’s right to choose.
PES Women’s President Zita Gurmai added: “all of Europe’s
progressive forces should join us in making this stand and fight for the
right of women to choose. We must fight to protect the sensible and
compassionate decisions that have been made over the last years on fundamental
women’s rights in Europe”.
When PSOE brought
in its very liberal legislation the PP made it clear it opposed it, tried to
ban it through the courts and hence it is no surprise it has brought forward
its own regressive law. Needless to say the Spanish Catholic Church, always an
ally of the right, has played a major part behind the scenes.
Abortion may be the
issue but what it demonstrates is Spain’s slide into an authoritarian State
where the people’s rights across a broad spectrum of life are being eroded.
There would be some irony indeed if the famous Rajoy water cannon, purchased to
keep his people off the streets under his repressive internal security law, was
first used in Madrid against a Europe-wide co-ordinated protest against the new
abortion law. Make no mistake Spain’s Partido Popular government is not a
conservative government but a neo-Francoist government growing more repressive
by the day.
(Photo: PSOE’s
Elena Valenciano with PES Women President Zita Gurmai)
(The above article
was published in the London Progressive Forum on January 15 2014).
