What has never been seen in Congress: the Vox bench standing, joining that of the PP, with its deputies breaking their hands to applaud the intervention of the popular group’s spokesperson, Ester Muñoz. Muñoz’s speech in favor of banning the burqa and niqab in public spaces —“a moral principle that defines us as a nation,” in his words— ended up enthusing the extreme right, which this Tuesday was rejected by Congress. Vox enlisted PP and UPN to the cause. The proposal gathered 170 votes in favor of the three groups of the national right, 177 against – PSOE, Sumar, ERC, EH Bildu, PNV, Podemos, BNG and Compromís – and one abstention from the Canary Coalition (CC).
The initiative also failed to attract Junts, which until the day before had not spoken out. Carles Puigdemont’s party finally presented its own initiative to legislate in this regard after announcing that it would not play along with those it disdained as “fascists.” Other groups such as the PNV, CC and the PSOE itself were willing to debate the issue, as long as it is separated from the anti-immigration discourse of the extreme right.
That investiture majority that was reborn this Tuesday in Congress thanks to the same glue that made it possible: the frontal rejection of Vox, a scarecrow that unites the entire left and the sovereign right. Because beyond the specific proposal, what the majority of Congress rejected was reinforcing the “xenophobic and racist” discourse of the ultra formation.
The PP was looking for something else, just the opposite: to highlight what unites it to Santiago Abascal’s party, when the successive regional elections establish the idea that the pact with the ultras will be the inevitable toll on its path to La Moncloa. This was highlighted last weekend by the party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and Muñoz herself, coinciding with the . According to what was seen this Tuesday in Congress, the popular spokesperson fully achieved it.
Muñoz’s speech against full veils, a “symbol of submission” for women, first inflamed his deputies and then those of Vox, who little by little joined in the applause until they finally stood up. “Is this the progress of the left?” the popular leader attacked, holding up a photograph of a woman covered in a burqa. Muñoz, unlike what Vox had done extensively, did not openly question immigration, although he planted some references. In this way, he drew great applause when he proclaimed: “Those who are bothered by the fact that women are free and equal, should not come to Spain.” The spokesperson for the popular group also refuted the argument of some voices on the left who argue that the ban would violate the right to religious freedom: “This right is not absolute when it violates freedom and integrity.”
The debate concluded with that agreement between PP and Vox after having started in a very different way. In her defense of the proposal, the ultra representative Blanca Armario even blamed the popular and socialists alike for causing “we Spaniards to feel like foreigners in our own land.” This intervention gave rise to the PSOE to reproach the PP for supporting the initiative of those who “attack and humiliate them.” These were the words of the socialist deputy Andrea Fernández, minutes before giving the speakers’ platform to Muñoz and having her transmute Vox’s attacks into a standing ovation. Shortly before, Sumar deputy Esther Gil de Reboleño had stated: “The PP provides the votes and Vox provides the ideology.”
The uncertainty about the result of the vote in the plenary session that began at 3:00 p.m. had already dissipated early in the morning, when the doubts came from the fact that Carles Puigdemont’s party had expressed itself on previous occasions in favor of the ban. And in fact, after confirming her rejection of Vox, she registered in Congress a proposal in that sense, although much more nuanced than that of the ultras, which contemplated fines for women who broke the rule and prison sentences for those who coerce them to dress like that. Junts spokesperson, Miriam Nogueras, wanted to draw a radical line to differentiate herself from those she repeatedly called “fascists.” “Neither burka nor Vox,” he declared. “No to Vox, now and always,” he announced before placing his formation in “centrality, values and democracy.”
On the left, several spokespersons made clear their rejection of the burqa. “We do not want for other women what we do not want for ourselves,” warned the socialist Fernández. “We don’t like the burqa and the niqabLet it be clear,” agreed Pilar Vallugera, from ERC. Others put the emphasis on defending “religious freedom”, such as Noemí Santana, from Podemos. The most forceful in this line was Àgueda Micó, from Compromís, who defended: “No State has to tell anyone how to dress.” For the PNV, Mikel Legarda glossed the objections of the European Court of Human Rights, which he criticized for “exacerbates stereotypes” and undermines “religious plurality.”
Another recurring argument from detractors was that the ban would end up confining many of these women at home. Fernández assured that this is the case of 30% of those affected in France. “Do you think the solution for these women is to fine them, criminalize them, lock them at home?” said Gil de Reboleño, from Sumar. “It is an inhuman and cruel rule,” added the Republican Vallugera.
The ERC deputy summarized in one sentence the reply that not a single one of the left-wing spokespersons failed to raise: “Vox defending women’s rights… What an oxymoron!” Because this time Vox, the party that has among its nemesis what it calls “gender ideology” has embraced the flag of women’s freedom this time. Mixed, as could not be missed, with a more common discourse on security and immigration. Representative Blanca Armario even resorted to an issue that her group usually minimizes—attacks on homosexuals—to comment on a case in which the attackers were of North African origin.
Vox’s dialectical stew also did not leave aside the inevitable drops of nationalist exaltation and the denunciation of the sinister plans that it attributes to the left. That left that, according to Armario, “has set out to overthrow Spain” and that does not even agree to recognize “the glories of Spanish history.” In the face of such demolition stands Vox, that party that has “no problem with the color of the skin, but rather with what some have in their heads.”
The rejection of Vox’s proposal does not close the debate. Junts has already registered its proposal which, according to Nogueras, “passes European filters” unlike Abascal’s. The PNV suggests creating a subcommittee to study the issue, and the only CC deputy, Cristina Valido, also advocates finding formulas against the full veil. The PSOE, through the mouth of Andrea Fernández, was willing to “open a serious debate”, although without further details.
