The bone of contention was the presentation, Tuesday, March 3, of the bill on sexual violence called "only a yes is a yes" and introducing the concept of express consent. Defended by the Minister of Equality and number two of the Podemos party, Irene Montero, this text was adopted by the Ministry of Justice, led by the socialist Juan Carlos Campo.

In an internal report, this ministry deplored "unnecessary duplication" with other laws of a text which does not provide "the mechanisms necessary to ensure its application" and encroaches on the pioneering law against gender violence of 2004. What cause the fury of the head of Podemos and vice-president of the government, Pablo Iglesias, who is also ... the companion of Irene Montero.

"Behind the technical excuses, I think there are a lot of frustrated macho men," he said before the leader of this party in Parliament, Pablo Echenique, outbid, saying that "when prestigious women write a law, a macho must come and say 'don't worry, i'll explain how to do things' ".

Trying to put an end to the controversy, the number two of the Socialist Party (PSOE), Adriana Lastra, has stepped up to deny the existence of "chauvinist ministers". "There is a feminist government, from the first to the last," the minister said.

Considered a pioneer since the adoption of the 2004 law on gender-based violence, Spain has a powerful feminist movement that has brought hundreds of thousands of women to the streets for the past two years on Women's Rights Day on 8 March.

For Cristina Monge, political scientist at the University of Zaragoza, "this controversy reveals above all the fact that the socialists and Podemos" are fighting for hegemony "within the powerful Spanish feminist movement".

Since coming to power, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made feminism one of the pillars of his action, in 2018 appointing the most feminine government in the country's history. He has since recently promoted women to head the secret services, the Civil Guard and three of the executive vice-presidents.

With AFP

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