PP, Sumar, ERC, Junts, PNV and EH Bildu voted against; Podemos and Vox abstained and only the Canary Coalition, the BNG, UPN and José Luis Ábalos joined the PSOE with their positive votes. There were 184 votes against, compared to 122 in favor and 36 abstentions.
The Congress of Deputies has refused to consider the bill against pimping. The PSOE was left alone on Tuesday and its abolitionist initiative has received no support from governing partner Sumar, nor from its parliamentary allies, nor from the Popular Party.
The refusal of Congress to process the PSOE bill against pimping represents the seventh defeat of the Spanish government in the plenary session of the Chamber since the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez and the first to suffer from an initiative launched by the Socialist Group itself is promoted.
The Popular Party, which supported this same initiative in the previous term, has changed the meaning of their vote, believing that this is divisive and that the socialist group is making an “unworthy use and abuse of feminism for electoral purposes.”
PP, Sumar, ERC, Junts, PNV and EH Bildu They voted against; Podemos and Vox abstained and only accompanied the PSOE with their positive votes. The Canary Coalition, the BNG, UPN and José Luis Ábalos. There were 184 votes against, compared to 122 in favor and 36 abstentions.
Given the apparent lack of support for the proposal, the PP suggested to the PSOE that it should be withdrawn in order to negotiate within the Commission a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, an option that the Minister of Equality has ruled out. Ana Redondo. Finally, the PP has not saved the process and the initiative is in decline.
With this text, the PSOE planned to amend the Criminal Code to strengthen the penalty for pimping, paying fines for sex and punishing leasing by third parties with imprisonment, that is, punishing profits from allocating a property or any other space to exercise power over another person, even with their consent.
The Equality Minister denounced after the vote that “all parties have portrayed themselves today in Congress” and warned that her party will continue to work “to abolish prostitution and the great enterprise of pimping”: “We socialists are the only that we have remained steadfast in defending the rights, dignity and freedom of women,” she stated.
Many groups (PP, ERC, Sumar and PNV) have criticized the Socialists for reviving this initiative for electoral purposes, while several groups (EH Bildu, Podemos, Junts, ERC) have denounced that it would put women in prostitution situations criminalize and would lead to secrecy and greater vulnerability.
Similarly, there has been criticism from both the right and left of the PSOE that the proposal did not include protection mechanisms for women that could provide them with alternatives to get out of prostitution.
Concentration before Congress
About thirty women in prostitution have gathered in front of the Congress of Deputies to denounce the existence of the PSOE bill “criminalize” and will lead this group to invisibility, insecurity and clandestinity.
Organized by the Stop-abolition platformThe purpose of the meeting was to “claim non-abolition” because this “will not be beneficial” to the self-described “sex workers,” spokesperson Susana Pastor told the media.
Pastor has assured that abolition has been a “failure” and a “disgrace” in countries like these Sweden and France and that it is not a solution to prostitution because “it is only punishment”: “These people need rights,” he declared.
Source: EITB
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
