Call for zero tolerance on male violence
Vox claim gender violence laws are creating ‘legal discrimination’ against men
VALENCIA’S president Ximo Puig has called for society not to take a single backwards step in the move to eliminate male violence against women.
Sr Puig made the statement following the bid by extreme right-wing party Vox to link their support to forming a government in Andalucía’s parliament to the withdrawal of domestic violence legislation which they claim is biased against men.
President Puig warned that ‘irresponsible politicians’ were trying to downplay the scourge, with at least 47 women killed by their partners in Spain in 2018.
He said that rather than moving backwards, the authorities should be strengthening legislation in order to crack down on men who abuse, injure or murder their partners.
This should go hand in hand with education which should be orientated towards changing attitudes in society, particularly amongst young people. He said ‘macho’ attitudes were at the heart of the problem, which led to ‘male terror’.
“It is unimaginable that some people still think that men have rights which they can exercise over women,” he stated.
Sr Puig said that a move towards real equality ‘is the only way that we will construct a decent society’.
“We have to close all doors to those who claim that this kind of violence affects men as much as it does women,” he said, referring to the policies which are being promoted by Vox.
He noted that women are specifically targeted and that victims have to be protected with all the defence mechanisms available to society.
In a press release, the farright party Vox – which grabbed the headlines last month by winning seats in the Andalucía parliament and holding the balance of power in the region – state that the LIVG domestic violence law damages ‘the presumption of innocence of men’ by creating specific courts for ‘one group of the population’ (referring to courts which judge men’s violence against women).
“This has caused numerous problems and injustices without resolving any of the problems which it was supposed to,” they allege.
They claim that is has been a sop to feminists and that it creates ‘legal discrimination’ against men.
They claim that the current Socialist (PSOE) party national government is ‘funding a war of the sexes’.