Law Of Equal Treatment Amended In Spain

LAW of Equal Treatment amended to address messages that incite hatred in Spain

The United We Can Party have registered in Congress on Friday, April 23 a series of important changes to the Equal Treatment Law drawn up by the PSOE which they claim contains a number of major shortcomings. One of the major objectives of the new proposal is to “specify” the sanction to “provide the rue with greater legal certainty”, the spokesperson said, adding that they want to see harsher punishments for messages that incite hatred in particular.

In addition, United We Can have proposed that other serious crimes of discrimination against minority groups be treated as seriously as anti-Semitism and be punished accordingly. Speaking for the party in Congress, Sofia Castanon, said she believes that Spain “is late” in finetuning this legislation, and accused other parties of using “Nazi advertising”.

She was referring to a campaign billboard recently erected by far-right Vox in the Madrid train station of Puerta del Sol ahead of the May 4 elections, which was slammed for its portrayal of illegal immigrants. The poster, which has since been removed, featured a picture of an elderly woman and a young man wearing a bandana with the words €4,700 a month for a mena. €426 a month for your grandmother’s pension,” followed by a smaller caption reading “Protect Madrid.”

Mena is the term commonly used to describe an unaccompanied foreign migrant minor in Spain, and is often used in a derogatory manner in reference to younger illegal immigrants in the country. Several politicians including the Spanish Equality Minister, Irene Montero, lodged formal complaints against Vox, accusing them of a hate crime.

According to Castanon, amending the current legislation would ensure that something like the campaign posted “would not happen” again.

United We Can has also proposed setting “intolerance as the axis of the norm” by adding national origin, ancestry, skin colour, migrant or refugee status and beliefs to the current list of punishable discriminations.

Source: Europa Press