Feminists from the PSOE, such as Susana Díaz, Amelia Valcárcel, Ángeles Álvarez, Matilde Fernández and Laura Seara, have signed a manifesto in which they ask to promote the expulsion of public officials who "request, accept or obtain a sexual act from a person in exchange for remuneration or benefit of any kind."
In the document they recall that the current Code of Ethics and Conduct of the PSOE establishes the principles that determine the ethical culture and that guide the behavior of all the people who embody the values of the PSOE in society.
According to them, this code reflects the spirit, values and guidelines for action that serve in the decision-making processes and resolution of ethical and moral dilemmas. Although all militancy is subject to the Code, public officials are especially "obliged to perform their functions with austerity, integrity, impartiality, honesty, exemplary character, effectiveness and full dedication to public service and the party, where applicable."
They also point out that in 5.3, which refers to the "responsible action" of the party's public officials, it specifies how full dedication to public service must be fulfilled, but they criticize that it does not refer to behaviors that would violate the spirit and the values that represent the PSOE and that "must be substantiated by the exemplarity required by the party's Code of Ethics."
Thus, the signatories demand that the Code of Ethics incorporate the explicit rejection of the "outrageous" business of prostitution. "We demand it as an inexcusable condition for compliance with the principle of exemplary public office, its non-compliance being grounds for expulsion of anyone who 'requests, accepts or obtains' a sexual act from a person in exchange for remuneration or benefit of the type whatever," they explain.
Likewise, they have indicated that they hope that the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, supports their initiative.
This internal agreement is part of the recommendations of international organizations that demand "effective" measures to reduce the demand for prostitution and therefore human trafficking, sexual exploitation and the pestilent business of organized criminal groups.
"Because abolitionism is the path that Spain must follow, we must begin by applying the principle of exemplarity in our party," they say.
At the moment, about 70 people have joined, including Altamira Gonzalo, Miyares, Rosa Peris, Teresa Blat, Maria Duran (Balearic Islands) and Yolanda Besteiro. Men such as Andrés Ollero, Juan López Martínez, José Luis Pedreira or Javier Guelbenzu, Juan Gabriel Martínez Arcas, among others, have also signed the manifesto.
