Spain’s equal opportunities minister has become a burden for the governing socialists because of her controversial reform of sexual criminal law. Who is Irene Montero, who divides feminists herself?
Brash, loud and radical. Hardly any minister is as present in the Spanish public as Irene Montero.
Irene Montero is not only the youngest minister in the predominantly female cabinet of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, but also the best-known. This also has to do with the fact that the 34-year-old is the partner of Pablo Iglesias, the founder of the left-wing party Unidas Podemos (UP).
Ever since Iglesias left politics last spring, Montero has been doing everything in her power to ensure that her party is not forgotten despite the dwindling number of voters. As Minister for Equal Opportunities in the coalition government of the Socialists and the UP, she is trying to put her own stamp on her.
She loudly positions herself as the most progressive of all politicians in the country, as a fighter for women’s rights and against macho violence in Spain. But it seems that Montero has now failed precisely because of this claim.
The minister’s flagship project is flawed
Because now it has become apparent that the “Only a yes is a yes” law that she worked out, which was intended to tighten sexual criminal law in Spain, has a major weakness. With the new legal norm, the distinction between sexual abuse and rape was abolished. This means that victims no longer have to prove that they actively defended themselves against sexual acts.
While the new law provides for tougher measures for rape, the minimum penalties for other sex offenses have been reduced. However, Montero “forgot” to add a clause that is customary in judicial reforms and restricts the right of appeal for perpetrators who have already been convicted. Because in Spain, convicts can partially reopen their cases if the legal situation changes.
Lawyers and other experts had warned Montero of these consequences before the new law came into force, but the politician did not address the concerns. In recent weeks, judges have reviewed pre-reform verdicts, reducing prison sentences by two years in some cases.
This led to an outcry among the victims. But the Equal Opportunities Minister is unimpressed and rejects any responsibility for the mistake. Rather, the real culprits for Montero have already been identified. The “machos” among the judges are responsible, according to the minister. They would knowingly misinterpret the amendment in order to damage it. As usual aggressive, she advised the lawyers to take extra lessons in gender equality.
The minister’s questioning of the impartiality of the judiciary angered many judges. They countered that the macho allegation was completely unfounded, since 70 percent of sexual offenses ended up on the desks of judges. The country’s highest judiciary is now calling for Montero’s resignation.
The long shadow of Pablo Iglesias
But the politician remains stubborn. It seems that Montero relishes being the enfant terrible of Spain’s left-wing party spectrum. She learned early on how to defend her position against any form of criticism. At the age of 15, the daughter of a mover and a teacher joined the “Communist Youth”. Eight years later, she joined the outraged movement named after May 15, which rebelled against the economic and political conditions in the country in the wake of the financial crisis.
Montero joined the Podemos party, which was still relatively unknown at the time, shortly after the 2014 European elections. She had previously turned down an offer to do a doctorate after studying psychology at Harvard. In the party she met Pablo Iglesias. They have been a couple since 2016 and sat together on the bench in the Spanish parliament.
Four years ago, the two caused outrage in their own ranks when, after the birth of their twins, they gave up their apartment in a working-class district of Madrid to move to a luxurious country house in the Madrid Sierra. The move seemed a betrayal of the left-wing principles so vehemently espoused by the couple. Iglesias saved the situation by letting the Podemos party base decide via plebiscite whether he would stay in office – he was Deputy Prime Minister at the time.
From the beginning it was not easy for Irene Montero to step out of the shadow of the much more eloquent and popular partner. To this day, her opponents criticize that she would never have been able to have such a career in Spanish politics without the support of Iglesias, with whom she now has three children.
The more radical, the better
Montero is now fighting all the more doggedly for recognition – and attention – in her role as Minister for Equal Opportunities. “The more radical a law, the more it feels confirmed,” says a women’s rights activist who has known her for years. In general, Montero has a problem communicating with Spain’s feminists.
This was evident in what is probably their most controversial legislative project, the so-called “Ley Trans”. Before she started this, she only met with LGBT associations and left out the classic feminists. The law goes too far for these and large sections of Spanish society. Because Montero demands that young people as young as twelve years of age have their gender rewritten in the population register and that from the age of 16 they can freely decide on gender reassignments. Before that you had to be of legal age.
The split between the LGBT community and women’s rights activists is now so deep that the respective associations are demonstrating separately. Such as on International Women’s Day in March or on the International Day against Violence against Women at the end of November. Significantly more women joined a march calling for Montero’s resignation.
Several social democratic ministers also ran there. Pedro Sánchez’s government is fed up with the fact that Montero is always looking for the limelight and thus constantly offers the opposition new targets for attack. This is worrying, because next year there will be elections in Spain. For this reason, the coalition partner Montero has now informed that the law on transsexuality will not be approved in this form.
But Montero sticks to her template again. She suspects a conspiracy between the Socialists and the conservative PP. Most recently, she even threatened to block other socialist legislation in return. Her credo is and remains what she often says in parliamentary discussions: “I will not take a step back.”