The municipalities governed by the far-right Vox party on Wednesday refused to hang rainbow flags to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Day, Partido Popular exposed its divisions, and the left camp took advantage of the celebration to attack its rivals, ahead of next months elections.
Spain’s Pride Day falls on 28 June, with public institutions and official buildings placing rainbow flags on their facades as a sign of support, but the entry of Vox in many city councils and regional parliaments after the 28 May elections has considerably reduced the number of LGTBI+ symbols.
The alliance of Vox (ECR) and the Popular Party (EPP) has resulted in the disappearance of numerous regional ministries of equality, and announcements of the reform of “trans” laws.
“No, I wasn’t planning to (celebrate) it, among other things, I guess because I’m heterosexual,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal said on Wednesday in an interview aired by Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE on the topic of celebrating pride.
LGTBI Pride Day “has much less importance than some politicians and lobbies would have us believe (…) many homosexual people, some of whom vote for Vox, do not identify with the messages of the lobbies or believe they should have a special day of celebration (…) I think I represent those people,” added Abascal, a friend of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
I put the flag…you take the flag away
Of the 17 regional parliaments in Spain, that of Castilla y León, where the PP and Vox govern in coalition, has not hung the LGTBI+ flag for the second year in a row, but the socialist party (PSOE/S&D) did hang one on Wednesday on the balcony outside the office of its parliamentary group, RTVE reported.
The president of the regional parliament, Carlos Pollán (Vox), threatened on Wednesday morning to send the parliament’s security services to remove the emblem if the socialists did not do so, and later even threatened to denounce the leader of the PSOE in the region, Luis Tudanca. However, by the end of the day, the LGTBI+ flag was still flying proudly.
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida (PP), took the decision some years ago not to hang the LGTBI+ symbol on the City Hall, citing a Supreme Court ruling that established that unofficial flags could not be used on the façades of public buildings in Spain.
However, on Wednesday night, the façade of. the Spanish capital’s city hall and the emblematic Cibeles fountain, one of Madrid’s main tourist symbols, along with the Puerta de Alcalá, wereagain illuminated in rainbow colours.
The PP headquarters in Madrid illuminated in the colours of the rainbow
However, surprisingly, the PP distanced itself from Vox and, for the first time in its recent history, lit up its headquarters building in Madrid’s Génova Street in the colours of the LGTB+ movement.
The centre-right party did hang the LGTBI+ flag in the city councils where it governs alone, including Valencia, Zaragoza and Logroño.
The LGTB+ “flag war” is another example of the division between the PP and Vox, which, although they seem doomed to understand each other if they ever want to reach the Spanish government, on the other hand, demonstrate their lack of harmony on many issues.
In an attempt to soften the bitter controversy, the president of Partido Popular and candidate for Prime Minister Alberto Núñez Feijóo sent congratulations to the LGTB+ communities.
“Freedom is being able to choose. We celebrate the recognition of diversity and that everyone can decide who they want to be (…) in their lives,” he said.
Meanwhile, controversial Minister for Equality Irene Montero (Podemos) called for a “happy and combative” LGTB+ Pride Day and the head of the executive, Pedro Sánchez, expressed his pride at belonging to an “open, happy and diverse” country and underlined the message with which the PSOE wants to confront the discourse of Vox: “Not one step backwards”.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
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