Last minute 8M, Women's Day 2022, live
Direct witness The two 8-M: from "neither Putin nor NATO" to "Montero resigns"
Feminism once again dyed the streets of Spain purple this Tuesday in more than a thousand demonstrations and events.
But it did so with much less influx compared to the previous 8-M and in a colder environment than that experienced in the historic call of 2018. The day of demands was largely marred by the division within the feminist movement, which for For the first time, it organized separate demonstrations in Madrid and a score of other cities.
These differences conditioned the celebration of International Women's Day and led to many of the political messages appealing precisely to the importance of recovering "unity" so that feminism can continue with its agenda of demands and advance real and effective equality between women and men.
The most massive march of the 8-M was that of Madrid, where some 30,000 people gathered, according to the Government Delegation, convened under the slogan Social rights for all, every day.
The ministers of the PSOE and United We Can participate in it, separately and with their own banners, as well as the delegation of Citizens or the unions.
For their part, the representatives of the PP were in the alternative march.
It was in Madrid where the division of feminism and the existence of a traditional current that is very critical of the queer policies of the Ministry of Equality led by Irene Montero was most crudely reflected.
Between 3,000 and 5,000 people supported the call of the Feminist Movement of Madrid to separate, and from there they expressed their total opposition to the "agenda" imposed by Montero and the gender self-determination of the Trans Law for causing the "erasure of women".
This is one of the main issues that explains the division of feminists.
It is something that also happened within the coalition government, with the fight that Carmen Calvo had for months against Montero for that law and that the purple leader ended up winning.
This group includes some of the women who have been benchmarks for the PSOE in equality for many years, such as Ángeles Álvarez, who participated in this demonstration.
Calvo was not present at any of them.
There is also a second cause of division: prostitution.
The feminist movement has an open debate between abolition or regulation, and traditional feminists are blunt in demanding the ban, compared to other modern currents that do not.
The alternative demonstration placed this issue as the axis of its protest and took "abolition" to the slogan of its header.
This atypical 8-M was also atypical due to the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the call that the Ministry of Equality had made for feminism to turn this day into a No to war.
This request came in the midst of the confrontation between the PSOE and United We Can over the shipment of weapons to Ukraine.
The purple ones recovered a motto that was born against the war in Iraq but that, in this case, was raised to question the decisions of Pedro Sánchez and the European Union.
This unleashed criticism from feminists -and the rejection of the minister spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez- because the cause of women and 8-M was being made invisible.
Putin's war did sneak into the demonstration, but it was in a minority way and only had a considerable role among the most radical groups, as happened in the anti-capitalist sector.
Of course, scattered throughout the route you could see some banners that called for "peace" and "no war."
Nor did she have a prominent role in the screams, which focused almost entirely on the feminist cause.
The surprise was in the attitude adopted by United We Can.
Despite having promoted it, the purples completely backed down and ignored the No to war after the serious crisis opened in the Government as a result of Ione Belarra calling the PSOE "war party".
That statement unleashed strong tensions within the Government and caused Yolanda Díaz to intervene on Monday to call the purple ministers to order and redirect that situation.
As this newspaper has learned, this strong clash is what explains why United We Can yesterday took a step back and rectified its purpose of wielding the No to war, to place the protest exclusively in the context of the demands of women.
So Irene Montero, Ione Belarra, Ángela Rodríguez Pam and the rest of the representatives marched and shouted feminist proclamations.
Asked about this year's division, Montero downplayed the importance of pointing out that feminism has always been organized from "diversity" and "plurality" and stressed that there is a "common agenda" that is shared.
However, she alluded to one of the reasons for that division to defend that "everyone can be who they are" and that diversity be protected.
Dozens of meters further back was the PSOE delegation with seven ministers -Nadia Calviño, Carolina Darias, Isabel Rodríguez, Pilar Llop, Pilar Alegría, Diana Morant and Raquel Sánchez-, Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, and leaders such as Adriana Lastra, with a feminist PSOE banner.
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March 8
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Elections Castilla y León 2022 An optimistic PSOE appeals for "change" to avoid the "fatal combination" of a Government of PP and Vox
PoliticsA part of feminism organizes an alternative 8-M demonstration against the policies of Irene Montero
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