Feminists denounce the lack of ambitious policies given the increase in femicides in France

It is a fact that no one likes and worries everyone. But that, for the women's organizations that have been demanding forceful measures against femicides for years, is one more example that theirs are not empty arguments. In 2109, 146 women died in France murdered by their partners or ex-partners, 21% more than in 2018 (25 more victims), according to data published this Monday. And that last was the year of the struggle of the Government of Emmanuel Macron against sexist violence, a battle that also provoked historical mobilizations throughout the country.

"The number of femicides, in net increase compared to 2018, shows to what extent France lacks ambitious and funded policies to end sexual violence," lamented the feminist organization Nous Toutes after learning of the new data. According to the 2019 National Study on violent deaths within the couple of the Ministry of the Interior, last year, 173 people (16% more than in 2018) died in these circumstances, the vast majority, 146, women (in Spain, 55 were killed by sexist violence in 2019). And the figures could have been even worse: in total, 268 attempted homicides were registered last year within the couple.

The vast majority of the murderers, 88%, were men. The profile of the femicide is a "married man, of French nationality, between 30 and 49 years old and who does not exercise any professional activity," according to the report, made public on Monday.

76% of the femicides were committed at the home of the victim or the murderer. In 31% of the cases they originated in a dispute, 20% due to "an unaccepted separation". In addition to women, 25 minors also perished in 2019 from domestic violence, four more than last year.

Several more worrying data (still): 41% of those who died had previously been victims of sexist violence and 26% had filed a complaint. However, only one of the victims had a protection device (judicial control) and only two of the perpetrators were under judicial control (the security forces were aware that they were abusers).

The new figures are known almost an exact year after the beginning of a concertation organized by the Macron government to, for three months, discuss with police, judges, doctors, social workers and women's associations how to improve the protection of victims and reduce femicides. The meeting gave rise to a catalog of measures presented on November 25, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Among others, the Government announced training to improve the awareness of agents and gendarmes regarding sexist violence - between 2015 and 2016, 80% of the complaints were filed, according to an official report - the suppression of parental rights of the aggressors or the possibility of filing a complaint for violence in hospitals where victims are treated. Last month, the National Assembly also approved the bill to better protect “victims of spousal violence,” which includes an exception to medical secrecy in case of “immediate danger” or the possibility of seizing a firearm in case of complaint for domestic violence. The extension of the use of the electric bracelet for cases of sexist violence, one of the main demands of feminist groups and which received the approval of the parliament at the end of last year, is still pending.

The person responsible for these measures in 2019 as Secretary of State for Equality, Marlène Schiappa, today Deputy Minister for Citizenship, defended the steps taken by the Government that, she said, have led to a "revolution on the ground" that has allowed "a true awareness and mobilization of the whole society in the face of domestic violence ”. Her successor at the head of Equality, Elisabeth Moreno, said she was "fully determined and mobilized" to reduce sexist violence, although she did not advance new measures or more means.

And that is precisely one of the great criticisms of women's organizations, which last year achieved a historic attendance of at least 49,000 people to the annual march against sexist violence in November. As they denounce, what is still lacking is money and true political will: they have been demanding investments of 1,000 million euros for a year to implement protection policies but, above all, prevention of sexist violence, an “essential tool for all broad social change but that is the great absence of the public policies implemented ”, emphasizes Nous Toutes. For feminist associations, Spain is the great benchmark in sexist violence, especially due to its Law against gender violence, which contains many of the measures they demand for France, such as the substantial expansion of restraining orders (20,000 every year in Spain, compared to 1,300 in France)

"We have received many words, but no economic means really up to the task," also lamented the president of the Women's Foundation, Anne-Cécile Mailfert, for whom the new figures are "frightening but not surprising."