The announcement by the populist president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to create in the capital the first Comprehensive Centre for the Attention of Male Victims of Sexual Violence has caused a stir. Particularly on the left, where it is considered an insult to women and to the system that has been in place in the country for a good twenty years.
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With our correspondent in Madrid, Francois Musseau
For years, the conservative populist leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso has been saying and repeating that feminist ideology is actually a form of “intellectual dictatorship.” The president of the Community of Madrid even thinks, like the far-right leader Santiago Abascal, that Spanish laws do not protect women, but criminalize men. So it came as no surprise that she announced the creation of a Center for the Attention of Men Who Suffer or Have Suffered from Abuse and Sexual Violence. The announcement was rather seen as a provocation.
Public aid of 700,000 euros
This center will open in January 2025 and will receive annual public aid of around 700,000 euros. On the left, where for years, work has been done so that theSpain is at the forefront of measures and laws to protect women from sexist and sexual violence, it is considered a political attack. A form of cynicism and undoubtedly pure and hard denialism, for the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo.
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Critics do not deny that men are also victims of sexual violence. They point first to the fact that they are much fewer in number than women, but above all to the political intention of the Madrid leader. She denies everything and assures that she is sincere in her approach. On the left, it is hammered home that Isabel Díaz Ayuso denies male domination at the heart of society.