Anti-Abortion Law
With the law presented
by the Popular Party government, abortion would only be allowed if two medical
or psychiatric reports state that the health of the pregnant woman is at risk.
This suppresses all freedom of women to decide about their pregnancy, even in
cases of rape or fetal malformation. If the law is passed, Spain would become
one of the last European countries in terms of reproductive rights.
According to polls
around 80 % of Spaniards oppose this reform (and even 60% of the voters of the
Popular Party). With this law, the PP seeks to satisfy the small ultra-Catholic
minority that is one of their stalwarts. These are the same people who
demonstrated against the legalization of gay marriage. Under the guise of
defending "life" and "family", they seek to impose a
traditional and conservative morality, inspired by radical Catholicism.
Undemocratic Electoral
Law
The Popular Party can
impose this reform because it has an absolute majority in parliament (186 MPs
out of 350), even though they received only 44% of the vote, with a turnup of
68%. The Spanish electoral law is not proportional and makes it easy for a
single party to gain absolute power throughout the term.
Repressive "Citizen
Safety" Law
The government takes
advantage of this situation to rule disregarding public opinion and without
negotiating with other organizations. In addition, their attitude towards
social mobilizations has ranged between disdain and criminalization. With the
new Public Safety Law, nicknamed "#LeyAnti15m", photographing a
policeman while doing his work, participating in an previously unauthorized
demonstration, or installing a tent on the street , are crimes that may be
fined with up to 600,000 euros. Thus the government is pushing towards an
authoritarian and increasingly undemocratic state.
Cuts, inequality and
corruption
Only in this way can the
government continue to impose its austerity measures, social cuts and the
privatization of public services. Their aim is to defend the financial system
above all, even if the price is sinking part of the population into poverty.
The major parties, PP and PSOE have even amended the Constitution without any
popular consultation, so that the payment of the public debt has priority over
any other budget item.
In the recent years,
Spain has become the most unequal country in the euro zone according to the
Gini index, with over nine million people under the poverty line. In 2013
unemployment in Spain reached a record high of 27% , after four years above
20%. For those under 25, unemployment is 57.6 %, also an European record. All
this has led to the departure of hundreds of thousands of workers, many of them
young, looking for a job and unable to plan a life in our own country.
To all this we can add
the innumerable cases of corruption in which the PP leaders are involved, from
the summit of the party to the regional presidents. Other cases of corruption
have involved the PSOE, the big unions and even the Royal Family, which has
received a blatantly preferential treatment from the justice courts.
Spanish people in the
Netherlands
We, Spanish immigrants
in the Netherlands, are organized in solidarity with the movement in Spain to
denounce and combat this enormous social regression, and fight for a real
change in the economic and political system, which we think is wrecked.
We are part of the 15-M
movement (started on May 15, 2011) and the Maroon Tide (network of assemblies
of Spanish emigrants . We believe that international pressure against the
Spanish government, and international solidarity with the protest movements in
Spain, can be effective to stop reforms such as the Abortion Act .
Finally, we are
concerned that the setbacks that are happening in Spain may be the vanguard of
what is to come in the rest of Europe if we are not able to stop it in time, as
shows the rise of far-right parties in several European countries, including
the Netherlands.
To discuss all these issues, support us or get more
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