Compromís and PSPV-PSOE have finally reached an agreement to approve a joint motion to reaffirm Valencia as an “abolitionist city” and draft a new ordinance against prostitution “in which the whores are prosecuted and punished.” An agreement that is far from the existing differences between the two parties at the regional level and the tension personified in the ministers Mónica Oltra and Gabriela Bravo.
The groups that make up the municipal government have agreed on a text that has been approved with the abstention of PP and Vox and the opposition of Cs, which was based on a socialist motion for the abolition of prostitution. The document has been completed with some points proposed by Compromís, which considered that the initial wording “fell short” because this violence against women -one of the “cruelest”- requires a “multifaceted” approach that requires a broad look and transversal”, as explained by the Councilor for Equality, Lucía Beamud.
In this way, both political formations have reached an agreement to reaffirm Valencia’s commitment as a prostitution abolitionist city. In this sense, the motion urges all political parties with a presence in the Congress of Deputies to “close ranks against the slavery of the 21st century that is prostitution.”
Likewise, the motion also urges the modification of other regulations such as the Immigration Law and the Citizen Security Law “because they sanction and are harmful to women and especially to the most vulnerable women.” In addition, the new ordinance will be accompanied by a plan for analysis, comprehensive intervention and help for prostituted women.
In this regard, the socialist deputy mayor Sandra Gómez has stressed that it is “fundamental, non-negotiable and inalienable” that this abolitionist position of the city be confirmed because it is “a matter of human rights.”
“We must end the false debate that prostitution is sex work, no, it is sexual slavery that affects the human rights of the most vulnerable women,” stressed the socialist mayor, who has insisted on “ending the fiction of talk about sexual contract because this supposed free consent hides an asymmetry in which the woman is subjected to domination».
For this reason, to the women who advocate for a regulation, he has replied: “the problem is that it seems that it does not affect us because it affects women who are invisible because they are poor and foreigners and who do not matter to us in an absolute lack of empathy” . “It is said that it is just any job but not for me, for them, and what I do not want for myself or for my daughter I cannot want for any woman in this city or in the world,” she stressed.
For his part, Beamud (Compromís) has stressed that solving this problem “requires going to the root, to the demand, with awareness programs to put an end to this culture, such as occurs in bachelor parties”, as well as prevention, such as workshops in educational centers and teacher training on pornography, which is the only sexual education that young people receive, and also with itinerary programs and a minimum income so that women “can go out and have an autonomous life project” .
For her part, the popular councilor Marta Torrado has stressed that prostitution “cannot be legalized because it is not a job” and the State “cannot profit from sexual exploitation that violates the dignity of women and the money they are paid it hides the violence that is exercised against them».
However, he has criticized the discrepancies between the Ministers of Justice, the socialist Gabriela Bravo, and the Vice President and Minister of Equality, Mónia Oltra, of Compromís, and that in seven years of government they have not criminalized prostitution. For this reason, she justifies her abstention in that although there are “many things” in the motion that they like, she wants to know the content of the new ordinance and the reform of the penal code.
On the other hand, Rocío Gil, from Cs, has pointed out that the position of her group is clear: “rights, freedoms, guarantees and regulation.” In addition, she has criticized them for the fact that in seven years “they have not been brave to face this issue” and has asked for a table with “all the political forces and social organizations to address this issue.” The Vox group has not intervened.
Apart from this agreement, at regional level the discrepancies are still in force after the Ministry of Equality directed by Mónica Oltra considered that the modification of the Law of Public Shows proposed by the Department of Justice of Gabriela Bravo to abolish prostitution “does not result appropriate” because the eradication of this practice is “state competence” and also accuses him of “taking over powers” in the matter of preventing violence against women, which correspond to his area of management.
In the report of allegations to the preliminary bill, he questions that the criminalization of the demand for prostitution pursued by Bravo’s initiative to abolish this practice supposes “de facto an indirect sanction” for the women who exercise it, which aggravates their vulnerability, “increases their social stigmatization” and weakens their support networks.
Similarly, it is stated that prostitution is a form of gender violence. “These are matters, all of them, the competence of the Vice Presidency and the Ministry of Equality and Inclusive Policies,” he stressed. For this reason, he concluded that the Ministry of Justice “is not competent in matters of gender equality, recognition of women’s rights and the fight against gender and sexist violence.”
