Spanish Main Opposition party (Popular Party, right wing) stance in same-sex marriage: repealing
21/01/2011
Submitted by
Luis Abolafia Anguita, Fundacion Triangulo
Dear all,
I'm not sure how aware you are about the recent statement of Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the main opposition party in Spain, right wing, about the same-sex marriage (it seems to me that not many news about Spanish speaking countries reach the list).
As a summary, there will be elections at the beginning of 2012 in Spain and the chances that the right wing Popular Party (PP) wins are quite high.
In 2005, the Popular Party lodged an appeal to the Constitutional Court against the reform of the Civil Code, which eliminated the mention to women and men on the article about marriage, allowing the marriage of same-sex couples with the same rights and obligations (including adoption).
This appeal hasn't been solved yet, partly because the Constitutional Court have been paralysed for almost 4 years: in 2007 4 out of 12 judges had to be replaced, but the two main parties, the Socialist Party and the Popular Party, hadn't agreed on the names. In November of 2010, 4 more new judges should have been appointed. That means 8 out of 12. And we should add the death of another judge, which means 9 judges out of 12 (!!!!!!!!).
Two issues blocked the appointment of the new judges: the new law regulating the Catalonian autonomic region and progressive laws approved by the Socialist government, such as the same-sex marriage and the new abortion law.
During these years, the Constitutional Court was barely able to work, but last year, 2010, the Constitutional Court finally declared constitutional the new law regulating the Catalonian autonomic region.
After this sentence, and in extremis, 4 new judges were appointed last month after an agreement between the 2 main parties, but there's still one judge to be appointed (the vacancy of the judge that passed away) and 4 more should be replaced.
The strategy of the Popular party to place ideologically close judges, therefore, to make sure that these laws are declared unconstitutional, has failed. So now, the Popular Party has declared that they will probably repeal these laws, independently of the Constitutional Court's decision.
Three times has the leader of the Popular Party talked, lately, about the legislation allowing same-sex marriages:
1st time, 31/10/2010 > He said that he may repeal same-sex marriage law reform whether the Constitutional Court declare it constitutional or not.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/es...na/elpepuesp/20101031elpepinac_1/Tes
P. ¿Y en el caso del matrimonio homosexual?
R. Escucharé al Constitucional y a la gente, pero no me gusta lo del matrimonio, y creo que no es constitucional.
P. Insisto en la misma pregunta que le hice hace dos años. ¿Si el Constitucional la avala, usted se compromete a mantenerla, o no?
R. No.
2nd time, 21/12/2010. After receiving a lot of criticism, he stated in a TV interview that, after the sentence of the Constitutional Court on the same-sex marriage issue, he will listen to the people to decide whether or not to repeal the law reform.
http://www.intereconomia.com/prog...o-al-agua/mariano-rajoy-gato-al-agua
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/de...al/elpepudep/20101221elpepudep_1/Tes
He gave this interview to Intereconomía, a TV station controlled by the Opus Dei which has targeted same-sex marriage and the LGBT NGOs. This channel was fined by the Government for its homophobic statements.
http://www.cuatro.com/noticias/vi...omia-homofobia/20100702ctoultpro_79/
This media conglomerate has heavily criticise as well any public grant that the Spanish LGBT NGOs has received. The last criticism that Fundación Triángulo received was because the Spanish Development Agency gave us a grant to support a project in Peru to secure the access to the public health care service of the LGBT population. Sadly, COLEGAS, an LGBT confederation in Spain, heavily criticised as well this grant at the same article. COLEGAS is an allied of the Popular Party.
http://www.intereconomia.com/noti...ciona-137600-euros-los-gays-peruanos
3rd time, 17/01/11, he stated on an interview at the Spanish National Radio that he will repeal the same-sex marriage law reform.
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20110...mercado-laboral-energia/395579.shtml (minute 18:43).
http://www.lavanguardia.es/politi...-diga-el-tc-sobre-la-del-aborto.html
Next day, the Popular Party clarified that they will repeal the new abortion law and listen to the people to decide whether to repeal the same-sex marriage law reform as well.
http://www.europapress.es/naciona...ios-homosexuales-20110117104820.html
Still not clear for us.
Those are the PP's arguments about why the legislation allowing same-sex marriages is unconstitutional:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/es...y/elpporesp/20050930elpepunac_11/Tes
News about the Popular Party lodging an appeal against same-sex marriage law reform: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/09/30/espana/1128082853.html
Bad times for human rights may come soon in Spain, we should be ready to fight back.
I'm not sure how aware you are about the recent statement of Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the main opposition party in Spain, right wing, about the same-sex marriage (it seems to me that not many news about Spanish speaking countries reach the list).
As a summary, there will be elections at the beginning of 2012 in Spain and the chances that the right wing Popular Party (PP) wins are quite high.
In 2005, the Popular Party lodged an appeal to the Constitutional Court against the reform of the Civil Code, which eliminated the mention to women and men on the article about marriage, allowing the marriage of same-sex couples with the same rights and obligations (including adoption).
This appeal hasn't been solved yet, partly because the Constitutional Court have been paralysed for almost 4 years: in 2007 4 out of 12 judges had to be replaced, but the two main parties, the Socialist Party and the Popular Party, hadn't agreed on the names. In November of 2010, 4 more new judges should have been appointed. That means 8 out of 12. And we should add the death of another judge, which means 9 judges out of 12 (!!!!!!!!).
Two issues blocked the appointment of the new judges: the new law regulating the Catalonian autonomic region and progressive laws approved by the Socialist government, such as the same-sex marriage and the new abortion law.
During these years, the Constitutional Court was barely able to work, but last year, 2010, the Constitutional Court finally declared constitutional the new law regulating the Catalonian autonomic region.
After this sentence, and in extremis, 4 new judges were appointed last month after an agreement between the 2 main parties, but there's still one judge to be appointed (the vacancy of the judge that passed away) and 4 more should be replaced.
The strategy of the Popular party to place ideologically close judges, therefore, to make sure that these laws are declared unconstitutional, has failed. So now, the Popular Party has declared that they will probably repeal these laws, independently of the Constitutional Court's decision.
Three times has the leader of the Popular Party talked, lately, about the legislation allowing same-sex marriages:
1st time, 31/10/2010 > He said that he may repeal same-sex marriage law reform whether the Constitutional Court declare it constitutional or not.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/es...na/elpepuesp/20101031elpepinac_1/Tes
P. ¿Y en el caso del matrimonio homosexual?
R. Escucharé al Constitucional y a la gente, pero no me gusta lo del matrimonio, y creo que no es constitucional.
P. Insisto en la misma pregunta que le hice hace dos años. ¿Si el Constitucional la avala, usted se compromete a mantenerla, o no?
R. No.
2nd time, 21/12/2010. After receiving a lot of criticism, he stated in a TV interview that, after the sentence of the Constitutional Court on the same-sex marriage issue, he will listen to the people to decide whether or not to repeal the law reform.
http://www.intereconomia.com/prog...o-al-agua/mariano-rajoy-gato-al-agua
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/de...al/elpepudep/20101221elpepudep_1/Tes
He gave this interview to Intereconomía, a TV station controlled by the Opus Dei which has targeted same-sex marriage and the LGBT NGOs. This channel was fined by the Government for its homophobic statements.
http://www.cuatro.com/noticias/vi...omia-homofobia/20100702ctoultpro_79/
This media conglomerate has heavily criticise as well any public grant that the Spanish LGBT NGOs has received. The last criticism that Fundación Triángulo received was because the Spanish Development Agency gave us a grant to support a project in Peru to secure the access to the public health care service of the LGBT population. Sadly, COLEGAS, an LGBT confederation in Spain, heavily criticised as well this grant at the same article. COLEGAS is an allied of the Popular Party.
http://www.intereconomia.com/noti...ciona-137600-euros-los-gays-peruanos
3rd time, 17/01/11, he stated on an interview at the Spanish National Radio that he will repeal the same-sex marriage law reform.
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20110...mercado-laboral-energia/395579.shtml (minute 18:43).
http://www.lavanguardia.es/politi...-diga-el-tc-sobre-la-del-aborto.html
Next day, the Popular Party clarified that they will repeal the new abortion law and listen to the people to decide whether to repeal the same-sex marriage law reform as well.
http://www.europapress.es/naciona...ios-homosexuales-20110117104820.html
Still not clear for us.
Those are the PP's arguments about why the legislation allowing same-sex marriages is unconstitutional:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/es...y/elpporesp/20050930elpepunac_11/Tes
News about the Popular Party lodging an appeal against same-sex marriage law reform: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/09/30/espana/1128082853.html
Bad times for human rights may come soon in Spain, we should be ready to fight back.
