PSOE will recover the abolition of prostitution in its convention and advances that it will resume its law against pimping

Socialists include pornography as a way to "commodify and exploit" women's bodies

The PSOE will recover its commitment to abolish prostitution in the Political Convention that it will hold this weekend in A Coruña, a topic present in its electoral program for the last general elections but shelved in the progressive coalition agreement of PSOE and SUMAR, due to the differences between both formations.

This is clear from the document 'Country Impulse', to which Europa Press has had access and which will serve as a basis for updating its ideology, in which socialists consider it necessary to create a "collective conscience" against prostitution and sexual exploitation.

In addition, socialist sources have told Europa Press that they will also resume the bill against pimping that they presented in the last legislature but which fell due to the calling of general elections. In this way, they indicate that they will propose punitive behaviors to end this practice.

"Spain cannot continue leading the consumption of prostitution. We are an abolitionist party, for which it is not acceptable that prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women continue to exist in a full democracy. It is necessary to create a collective conscience in this regard," the socialists point out in the text for their convention this weekend.

In this sense, they reject that women's bodies continue to be objects of "commodification and exploitation", whether in the forms of trafficking and prostitution, pornography, "wombs for rent" or the use of technologies that trivialize behaviors. violent. "The violence suffered by women in multiple and new expressions, also carried out by increasingly younger aggressors and victims, demands an urgent, coherent and systematic response," she points out.

Prostitution and surrogacy are two of the matters that were left out of the PSOE-SUMAR agreement, but were widely included in the PSOE electoral program for the elections last July.

Specifically, the socialists committed to defending "a social model that fights for the disappearance of the causes that force women to become prostitutes", as it is incompatible with the social model they propose. In addition, they already explicitly mentioned that they would develop a law to prohibit pimping in all its forms, which included the punishment of third parties and the sanction of pimps.

The proposal presented by the Socialist Group in the last legislature was taken into consideration thanks to the support of PP and Podemos - although with the rejection of the 'Comunes' - and did not have the approval of its partners then in the Lower House. It is foreseeable that when the norm is presented again, given the divergences on this issue between the formations that support the Government in this legislature, the socialists will need to once again obtain the support of the 'popular' if they want to move it forward.

The PSOE had already tried to carry out these measures before presenting the bill alone through an amendment to the controversial Law of 'only yes means yes', but was forced to withdraw it precisely due to the threat from its partners. of not supporting the norm as a whole. Once this proposal was presented and taken into consideration, however, a year passed without any progress in its processing and it finally declined due to the calling of elections.

The document to update the socialist ideology also mentions that they have recovered the Organic Law of equal representation and balanced presence of women and men, which is in Congress, and which had also decayed. Thus, in its document to renew the ideology, the PSOE focuses on the need to create this awareness "with the promotion of egalitarian policies that create environments that favor the empowerment and equality of women in the workplace", mentioning measures of conciliation, protection of single-parent families or the fight against gender violence.

Likewise, he attacks the "ultra-right" which, according to him, has put the fight against equality as one of the objectives marked in red and in which "it is finding the complicity of the Popular Party whenever it has needed it." "The protection of many women in Spain against gender violence depends, precisely, on those who deny its existence. The PSOE is committed to promoting government action aimed at ensuring that no woman feels unprotected due to living in a region Spanish government governed by the right," he adds.

In short, it is committed to continuing to be the "common home" of feminism, the dialogue and the meeting to carry out the feminist agenda, which is none other than the promotion of policies that lead us towards an egalitarian society, composed of women and men. free and equal in rights and opportunities.

Prostitution is a matter that generates divergences both in political formations and in feminism itself. In fact, it is an issue that divides the two prevailing factions in Spain. While those considered 'historical' are openly abolitionist, those of 'extensive feminism' do not have a common position.

AGAINST PIMPS, CLUBS AND CLIENTS

The bill registered by the PSOE in the last legislature involved the modification of article 187 of the Penal Code so that it "generally punishes pimping, without requiring a relationship of exploitation."

With this change, a prison sentence of 3 to 6 years and a fine of 18 to 24 months would be imposed on anyone who, using violence, intimidation, or abusing a situation of superiority, or of need or vulnerability of the victim, determines a person to practice or remain in prostitution.

It also recovered the third party lease that penalizes those who, for profit and on a regular basis, transfer real estate or premises to promote the practice of prostitution. That is, to the owners of the clubs, establishments and apartments where women practice this practice.

Likewise, it fined prostitution clients, that is, "people who use women in prostitution directly participate in the network that sustains this serious violation of human rights." Specifically, it established a fine of 12 to 24 months, which increased to prison of 1 to 3 years and a fine of 24 to 48 months if the person performing the sexual act is a minor.

Curiously, this norm did not make any reference to measures against pornography, despite claims from the feminist movement in Spain. Meanwhile, in the PSOE's electoral program they limited themselves to mentioning this practice in a large chapter dedicated to preventing minors' access to this type of content, a debate that is increasingly prominent on the political agenda. Now, socialists explicitly point to pornography among the forms of "commodification and exploitation" of women's bodies.