The candidate of Podemos for the general elections of November 29, Irene Montero, has charged this Sunday 15 against the words of the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, spoken at a rally on Saturday in Almería, in which he linked gender violence with “religious fanaticism,” and has censured that “sexist abusers” appear on his lists.
“Santiago Abascal has said that gender violence does not exist. And the sexist abusers that you carry in your lists, Abascal? The sexist abusers that Abascal carries in his list, those of what religious fanaticism are they?” Montero has asked during a Podemos campaign event in Seville, where she has been accompanied by Podemos’ secretary general, Ione Belarra; the head of list for Seville, Mar Cambrollé; and the number one for Cádiz, Julio de la Torre.
In her speech, Montero has recalled the Patronato de Protección a la Mujer, an organization created in 1941 and in effect until 1985, which she has described as “a prison of women throughout the country, to have the boot on our neck,” and she has promised that, if Podemos reaches government, not “a single euro more of public money” will be allocated to all those religious congregations that are responsible for torture, forced labor, and violations of fundamental rights of women.
Regarding the general elections of November 29, she has denounced that “they want to tell us that there are only two options, for the right to destroy everything and the other, which is more of the same,” placing Podemos’ alternative outside of that scheme. In her view, “what people are saying in the streets is not more of the same; it is that the rent price should go down, that we have work and deep changes.”
She has insisted that “one votes what one is, what one feels, what one dreams, one votes the measures one wants,” and she has pointed out that the real problem is not the citizens’ will to “lower the rent price,” but those who demand the vote “and then don’t do it and make it so that everything continues as it is.” For Montero, the key is to prevent “things from staying as they are or going worse,” and she has argued that, to improve, “the vote is for Podemos.”
On this line, he has warned that "those above have judges, have media outlets, and have politicians who defend them" and he has described "the great gap" as the one that separates "who has power and who does not have it." As he has stated, the elites "in order to have more power and more money, are accumulating more and more" and "they take everything that working wealth generates."
In response, Montero has proposed "following the trail of money" in order to "bring it back to its rightful owner, which are the families and the workers," which, he said, implies "bringing rents down by 40 percent, banning it if you want to buy a house to do business, and holiday apartments so that people can return to living in their neighborhoods and in their cities."
In addition, she has argued that "it is not enough with the sovereignist forces" and she has called for raising "a plurinational project" that integrates workers from Andalusia, the Basque Country, Castile, and Catalonia and that confronts both "the Andalusian snobs" and "the snobs of Madrid."
In relation to the increase in military spending demanded by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the Podemos leader has proposed redirecting "those 36,000 million that we are now putting into weapons" to strengthen public healthcare, hire doctors and healthcare staff, expand teaching staff, raise the allocation for the fight against gender-based violence to one billion, expropriate vulture funds, and create a public housing park.
"When we say that we want a minimum wage of 1,800 euros, we want to lower the price of rents, we want to make a public housing park, we want 30 hours a week, we want to kick the 'yankees' out of Rota, of Morón, and to make employment plans so that working does not mean supporting the crimes and the wars of Donald Trump" Montero has specified, who has denounced that Algeciras must stop being "a port through which military material passes and ends up in a genocide."
Police action in the 11N
For her part, Podemos' general secretary, Ione Belarra, has denounced that "there are three people at this moment who are in pretrial detention for having taken part in the general strike of November 11," while members of Núcleo Nacional "had munitions and weapons in their homes and are on the street."
"When there is no strength on the left to pressure the PSOE into doing what it does not want to do, we already know what happens," Belarra warned, who has said that the forces and security bodies of the State "are like a scale that is tilted to the right."
She has also criticized that "when people were asking for the democratization of justice, democratization of the forces and security bodies of the State, what we have been given in return is Marlaska and an agreement with the General Council of the Judiciary, with the Partido Popular, to hand back control of the high courts of this country to the Partido Popular."
Comprehensive law for vulnerable neighborhoods
The number one candidate for Seville, Mar Cambrollé, has stated at the joint rally with Montero and Belarra that, if she wins a seat, "I will never forget the working-class neighborhoods" and she will take to Congress a comprehensive law for vulnerable neighborhoods "that includes a state budget allocation so that we can 'rehabilitate the buildings, improve the urban landscape of our neighborhoods, and invest in labor inclusion for young people'."
She has recalled that "long before being an Lgtbi activist, I already fought in my neighborhood for those public services that neighborhoods have always lacked." "To fight for schools, for children's nurseries, because they would put up traffic lights for us, because at school the children had to cross an entire highway every day and many died on that highway because there were no traffic lights. We also fought, of course, for health clinics. It pains me to know that I fought for the rights that the working-class neighborhoods lack."
In the same vein, the top of the ticket for Cádiz, Julio de la Torre, has called for "no one to be left behind" and that "no one should be silent out of fear," and he has asked for support at the polls on November 29 "for peace, for housing and work, for healthcare that takes care of us, that heals us with respect. May love have no customs nor borders to cross, and may no one be left behind."