Five ministers of the coalition government, those attached to Unidas Podemos, voted this Thursday against the "repeal" of consent in the law that only yes is yes, while the rest of the Executive, promoter of the amendment of the government's own law, voted to favor. The rectification of the law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom has become the touchstone of the unity of the Executive, while the PSOE has saved the vote by agreeing with the PP, and gathering the support of Ciudadanos, PNV, Junts, Coalición Canary Islands, Asturias Forum.
The Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, intervened from the rostrum and her speech was a requiem for the norm. Montero made a fiery defense of consent, as the only condition to judge a crime against sexual freedom. “The offensive against the law of only yes is yes is an offensive against the government and an offensive against its president,” Montero said. The minister emphasized the will of the Equality agreement to maintain the unity of the Executive and the proposals that her ministry made to the Socialists for an amendment that would meet her expectations, despite disagreeing with that need for reform. And she lamented the setback that this reform represents for feminism.
The favorable vote of the PP, however, was not peaceful. The spokeswoman, Cuca Gamarra, accused the President of the Government of hiding, for not attending the plenary session -he is in Doñana (Huelva)-, of acting out of pure electoralism and demanded that this rectification also be charged in the form of resignations and dismissals, after that members of the executive such as the Government delegate for Gender Violence, Victoria Rosell, attended the demonstration of the feminist collectives on Wednesday against the Ministry of Justice.
Representative Lucía Muñoz Dalda intervened for the United Podemos confederal group, who was harsh in defending the law but avoided launching an offensive against the socialist group, as she had done in the debate to take it into consideration.
Finally, and although she had requested the telematic vote because the session coincided with her return from the United States -where she participated in the United Nations General Assembly-, the second vice president and leader of the Unidas Podemos space, Yolanda Díaz, attended the plenary session to endorse his position against consent reform.
One of the harshest interventions was that of the deputy of Esquerra Pilar Vallugera, who underlined the political scope of a rectification promoted by half of the Government against the other half, relying on the favorable vote of the opposition. The spokesperson for the CUP, Mireia Vehí, was also very critical, who criticized the punitive competition in which the right and left have been involved with their respective amendments to the norm.
PNV deputy Mikel Legarda used a conciliatory tone and explained his group's support for the reform due to the need to recover the "perception of legitimacy" of a norm, he explained, whose benefits in the fight against sexual violence, "as a iceberg”, will be seen over the months.
PSOE deputy Andrea Fernández defended the urgency of the reform and was very severe with the PP for wanting to turn the agreement for the reform into a rally against the Socialists.
The Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, who, until well into the debate, was not accompanied by any Socialist minister – then Vice President Teresa Ribera and the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero arrived – did not intervene to defend her controversial reform.
