Far right's gender violence denial tarnishes PP's election bid in Spain

Gender violence, and whether it exists, has become a central issue in Spain's election campaign in recent weeks, and is increasingly becoming a point of contention between the Partido Popular (PP) and Vox, the right-wing block that polls suggest are most likely to win the general election on July 23rd.

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Santiago Abascal, Vox party leader, has rejected the term gender violence altogether, describing it as an 'ideological concept.'

Vox's deputy in Valencia, José María Llanos, stated recently that "gender violence does not exist, sexist violence does not exist." In the Mediterranean region, the Vox candidate for regional president, Carlos Flores, was convicted of 21 offences against his wife in the early-2000s.

Violencia de género, as it is known in Spanish, has also been one of the main stumbling blocks in forming regional and municipal governments across the country in the aftermath of the Spanish right's big gains in local and regional elections at the end of May.

In Extremadura, the PP leader María Guardiola walked away from a potential pact with Vox over the issue, stating that she "cannot let into government those who deny sexist violence."

In Spain, 22 women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners in cases of gender-based violence so far in 2023. Yet Vox reject the premise of it all together, referring instead to "intra-family violence" in which all people, men, women and children, are victims. It was this definition of domestic violence that was included in the regional pact made between PP and Vox in Valencia.

READ ALSO: Five key takeaways from Spain's regional and local elections

But this denial of gender violence, and the assertion that moves to prevent it are ideologically driven, could have consequences beyond Valencia and Vox. Polls in Spain have for months suggested that the centre-right PP will win the most votes in July's general election, but likely fall short of an overall majority and come to rely on Vox to gain the legislative numbers. The recent local and regional results, and in particularly the pacts being put together across the country, all but confirm this as most plausible outcome.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, PP's leader, has tried to establish himself as a moderate, centrist politician since taking over the party leadership in 2022. Much of the PP's regional and local election tactics, as well as the ongoing national campaign, were centred on Feijóo's supposed steady centrism as an alternative to the radical, separatist-dependent 'Sanchismo' of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's PSOE government.

READ ALSO: PROFILE: Who is Alberto Núñez Feijóo and could he be Spain's next PM?

Vox's denial of gender violence, then, puts Feijóo and the PP in awkward position. The Galician's tactic of painting PSOE and Sánchez as dependent on separatists and radicals seems somewhat hollow if Feijóo's likely coalition partners continue with such radical rhetoric, and the politically savvy Sánchez has already began to capitalise on this inconsistency: how can PP criticise him when they have already made pacts with Vox across the country?

It is the PP, not PSOE, who rely on extremists and radicals, Sánchez has argued, and Feijóo's image as a moderate will certainly be sullied by his association with Vox whether directly or indirectly.

Following the comments by the far-right party, Feijóo quickly clarified his party's stance on gender violence, confirming that "gender-based violence exists and our society is profoundly shaken every time a women is murdered."

"We will not take steps backwards," he added. "And that means that we are not going to deny it or repeal laws that protect women."

That he felt the need to confirm this speaks volumes for his concerns about Vox, and his firm statement was backed up by similar comments by other PP leaders, including Valencian President Carlos Mazón and PP Congressional spokeswoman Cuca Gamarra.

Far-right denials of gender violence could also hurt Feijóo and the PP in another way, namely that its association with Vox may damage its brand among the female electorate, a group the PP was hoping to make gains in following the debacle surrounding the controversial sexual consent legislation that lowered the sentences of hundreds of convicted sex offenders and tarnished PSOE's image among some female voters.

According to average polling data from El País, the PP are on course to win around 34 percent of the vote in July's election, followed by PSOE (26 percent), Vox (14 percent) and Sumar (13 percent).

Yet as PP makes agreements with Vox at the regional and municipal level across the country and its leaders become more prominent in the national campaign, the far-right party's radical rhetoric could increasingly drive a wedge between the potential coalition partners and presents opportunities to Sánchez and PSOE on the campaign trail. PP and Vox are still yet to formalise a deal in the regions of Murcia and Aragón.

It has long been accepted in Spain that Pedro Sánchez would be a one-term Prime Minister and the PP would return to government. Vox, however, the party the PP will likely need to win, is already becoming an uncomfortable bedfellow before Feijóo even gets to La Moncloa.