The municipal government of Valladolid, formed by the coalition between the Popular Party and Vox, has excluded victims of gender violence as beneficiaries of social rental housing.
The measure, which was announced in May and also increased the minimum number of years of registration, seeks to extend the criteria reserved for victims of sexist violence to all those who have suffered violence in the family environment.
The Socialist Party of Castilla y León has denounced the decision of the Valladolid city council for affecting the ranking criteria, since the concept of domestic violence does not include abused women who do not live with their aggressor, and therefore the measure excludes victims of sexist violence.
The socialist spokesperson, Pedro Herrero, has harshly criticized the local government's justification, which ensures that victims of gender violence are included in the concept of domestic violence "because domestic violence is a much broader concept."
In this sense, the socialist assures that the law agreed 22 years ago indicates that gender violence is violence exercised "by a man against a woman regardless of their marital status, relationship or cohabitation, and when this violence constitutes a manifestation of discrimination, inequality or power relations."
However, domestic violence, he continued, “puts emphasis on the family or cohabitation relationship.” "In short, a woman who is a victim of gender violence does not have to be a victim of domestic violence," they have warned, which is why they affirm that the modification of the protocol "unprotects women victims of this social scourge."
In this sense, the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, has expressed her “deep concern” about the dismantling of equality policies in autonomous communities and city councils governed by PP and Vox, and has described the change as “absolutely intolerable.”
Redondo has taken the opportunity to criticize the management of the Community of Madrid, where, according to the minister, “it does not need Vox to dismantle equality policies.” In the words of the socialist, the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso is not processing many of the requests for financial aid intended for women victims of gender violence.
“I want to remember that these are resources that the Government of Spain directly delivers to the Autonomous Community so that the victims can receive economic resources that are absolutely essential for the daily lives of many women who are struggling to get ahead,” she indicated.
"We are very concerned about this incoherence of the Popular Party. We think it is an insult to the victims and a lack of loyalty to the State pact from the Government and the Ministry, which we are certainly not going to consent to," he concluded.
