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Spain’s Tourism Minister receives ‘bloodstained’ knife in the post

Spain's Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said Monday she had received a knife covered in red stains by post, just days after deaths threats and bullets were sent to other top leftist politicians in Spain.

Published: 26 April 2021 17:33 CEST
Spain's Tourism Minister receives 'bloodstained' knife in the post
Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto. Photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

The threats, which the left blames on the far-right, come amid deep political polarisation and during campaigning for a regional election in Madrid on May 4th which could have important ramifications for national politics.

“We can’t be intimidated. We are conscious that democracy will defeat hate,” Reyes Maroto told reporters outside parliament after filing a complaint with police over the letter.

She held up a photo of the knife covered in red stains. Police are investigating if the stains were blood or paint.

Maroto, a socialist, has served as minister of tourism and industry in Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing government since 2018.

She has campaigned intensely in support of the Socialist party’s candidate to head the regional government of Madrid ahead of next week’s polls.

Sanchez “strongly condemned” the threats in a tweet. “Enough! We are not going to let this pass. We are not going to accept that hatred disrupts coexistence in Spain,” he added.

Last week Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the head of the Guardia Civil police force, Maria Gamez, and the leader of far-left party Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, received threatening letters with bullet cartridges inside.

“Today it is me, but if the impunity and media whitewashing of the far-right continues, tomorrow it will be other colleagues,” Iglesias tweeted Thursday along with a photo of the handwritten letter which he received as well as four bullets.

Iglesias stepped down last month as a deputy prime minister in Sanchez’s coalition to run in the election as Podemos’ candidate to head the regional government of Madrid. The threats have shaken up the election campaign.

Iglesias on Friday walked out of a regional election debate on radio after the candidate for the far-right Vox part cast doubts on the death threats.

Sanchez on Sunday sought to rally leftists voters by warning that Vox was a “threat” to democracy.

Polls suggest the outgoing head of Madrid’s regional government, Isabel Diaz Ayuso of the conservative Popular Party, is poised to win the most seats but could need Vox support to govern.

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SPANISH LAW

Why Spain has decided not to ban pimping

The Spanish Parliament has rejected a draft bill by the ruling Socialists which proposed banning sexual procuring and toughening the country's prostitution laws. Why are both the left and the right against this sex work crackdown?

Published: 22 May 2024 16:23 CEST
Why Spain has decided not to ban pimping

This is the second attempt by the Socialists to carry out this proposed bill, which was rejected by parties on both sides of the political spectrum.

Even the government’s junior coalition partner Sumar voted against the move, as well as the PP, ERC, Junts, PNV and EH Bildu.

The bill aimed to punish all types of pimping, essentially profiting from the procuring of prostitution of others.

Currently, only pimps (proxenetas or chulos in Spanish) that carry out intimidation and violence are punishable, but PM Sánchez’s party has argued that the current wording of Spain’s Penal Code has led to “total impunity for pimping”. 

The aim was to expand upon article 187 of the Penal Code to imprison anyone who “promotes, favours or facilitates” the prostitution of another person “for profit”, with sentences of 3 to 6 years as well as fines.

This would be extended to a further 24 months in prison if violence, intimidation or deception were used and penalties of two to four years if pimping does not involve violence, even with the consent of the sex worker.

In addition, the PSOE wanted to be able to punish third parties who earn money for renting out properties for the purpose of pimping and prostitution with two to four years in prison and fines.

The Socialists also wanted to add an article so that those who pay for sex have a criminal charge. Anyone who agrees to “the practice of acts of a sexual nature in exchange for money or another type of benefit” is punished with a fine”, the bill read. 

The majority of the political parties denounced the proposal arguing that it was an “electoral” initiative.

Gala Pin, the deputy of Sumar stressed that her party couldn’t vote in favour of a bill that she has called “quite tacky”. “It proposes absolutely no solution, no itinerary, no alternative measure, no economic proposal for labour support, absolutely nothing,” she argued.

A woman holds up a sign that demands the abolition of prostitution during a demonstration with the motto “The strength of women is the future of all” in Madrid in 2021. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

Other members of Sumar criticised the bill saying that it was incomplete and that it didn’t address the root of the problem. Many also believe it will criminalise sex workers place women who practice prostitution in situations of greater vulnerability, without being able to defend themselves.

The party led by Yolanda Díaz added that they were in favour of “persecuting coercive pimping” but saw “large gaps” in the PSOE law, which they do not consider comprehensive, because it does not address social and economic measures such as employability, housing or training. They don’t want to allow prostitution to be eradicated. 

READ ALSO: What’s the law on prostitution in Spain?

Sex worker María Nelly and spokesperson for Stop Abolition has requested that the government allow women to continue work in prostitution if it’s something they’ve chosen.

She argues that it doesn’t seem right that they are victimised or that their clients are seen as aggressors. Nelly also told Antena 3 that she does not approve of fines being issued to clients or to the places that provide them with safe spaces to carry out their sex work.

“The majority of girls who engage in prostitution do so freely and there are very few reports of pimping,” she stated on TV programme Espejo Público.

READ ALSO: Spain’s top court reinstates first sex workers’ union

This is now the seventh time that proposed changes to prostitution laws have been rejected in parliament. 

The last changes were proposed in June 2022 and aimed to further crack down on pimping and exploitation, and punish those purchasing sex, including harsher sentences if the victim is vulnerable or underage.

At the time, the PSOE said they would not make prostitution outright illegal, but rather the exploitative activities that surround it. 

Critics of tougher prostitution laws such as those of Nordic countries argue that they lead to greater secrecy surrounding sex work, more police persecution and deportations, as well as housing problems since it can be interpreted that any property, even the home of a woman who carries out prostitution, is used by a pimp for profit.

It’s worth noting as well that Spain is among the largest ‘consumer’ of prostitution in the world (3 in every 10 Spanish men have admitted to sleeping with a prostitute) and the industry represents as much as 0.35 percent of the country’s GDP: €4.2 billion a year. 

Between 45,000 and 120,000 women work as prostitutes in Spain, according to different estimates. 

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