A new party of feminists “disenchanted” with the PSOE and UP Government is born

Members of the executive commission of the Feminists to Congress (FAC) party, this Tuesday at the Ateneo de Madrid.

From left to right: Sandra Moreno, Fatima Arranz, Juana Gallego, Pilar Alguilar and Puri Liétor. Víctor Sainz

A group of women has presented this Tuesday at the Ateneo de Madrid the FAC party (Feminists to Congress). They assure that they reflect the feelings of feminists "currently orphaned of political representation", "very angry" and "disenchanted" with the coalition government of PSOE and United We Can. They aspire to present themselves in the next general elections and reach future regional and local appointments. Among its affiliates (of which they do not yet offer figures) there are former militants of different leftist parties.

"The so-called most progressive Executive in history has abandoned the feminist agenda and has prioritized other policies that harm half of the population, women," said Juana Gallego, first deputy secretary of the new organization, writer and professor at the University Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​which aspires to give way to this "discontent" in the coming months and "turn that anger into political action."

The germ of FAC emerged last March, when they launched a manifesto to launch a party "thought by and for women" with which they captured the attention of more than 2,500 women. At the center of their claims is the latest debate that has opened a wide gap in global feminism: the one known as gender self-determination, that a person can change their name and sex in their official documents with only their will. As platforms such as Against the Erasure of Women or Confluence Feminist Movement have pointed out before, in FAC they consider that it poses a risk to women and aims to "make biological sex irrelevant" and that it hides "an effective weapon to deactivate feminism", added Juana Gallego.

The progress of the processing in Spain of what is known as the

(currently pending reports from the constitutional bodies, after passing through the Council of Ministers in the first round) was "without a doubt" an incentive for them to establish themselves as a political party " to get to Congress and defend our rights”, added Sandra Moreno, jurist and second deputy secretary of the FAC. She denounces that these initiatives hide "the dismantling of the legal category of sex, which is where the rights of women and girls are built." The members of the new party ask that the processing of the law be stopped and that it be addressed with a "more calm" debate.

Among the "main lines" of their project, as they have been defined, is to combat gender violence and reproductive exploitation "in all its forms", which include everything from wombs for rent to egg donation, abolishing prostitution or the fight against the “objectification and hypersexualization” of women and girls. Asked about the promise of the PSOE to elaborate an abolitionist law, they have been skeptical. "This government's pact is not to abolish prostitution", has valued the psychologist Puri Lietor, general secretary of FAC. "They don't tease us anymore."

The Feministas al Congreso party has a precedent as a political organization focused on the demands of women, the Feminist Party, led by Lidia Falcón, who has never achieved national or regional parliamentary representation. The members of FAC have indicated that it is still too early to estimate what representation they could obtain, although they will come out "to win" in the next general elections and they plan to present themselves in future local and regional elections.

The president of FAC, the writer and film critic Pilar Aguilar, assures that they will pay "a great deal of attention to relations" with other feminist groups or feminist militants from other parties. “The first step we are going to take is to question all these groups and talk to each other,” she assured. Asked specifically if they have contacted Carmen Calvo (socialist and former vice president of the coalition government from which she left, among other reasons, for her rejection of the

she assured that they are open to all participations, but that in no case do they contemplate the possibility of a double militancy.

Aguilar has assured that they do not have financial funds, but they hope to get the support of other women who are disenchanted with current politics.

"Jokingly we say that to see if any millionaire out there converts to true feminism and releases us a bunch of millions," he ironized.

Five women at the head of the executive committee

Pillar Aguilar.

She is the president of the new Feminists in Congress (FAC) party. 75-year-old essayist, teacher and film critic. In the 1960s he was a member of the Spanish Labor Party (PTE), and since the 1990s he has been writing about audiovisual fiction from a critical gender perspective. She is the author of several books, such as

(La Moderna, 2018) or

(Tecnos, 2021), in which Fátima Arranz also participates. For the last 14 years she has been active in feminist organizations in France, where she has lived part of her life. 

Fatima Arranz.

FAC Vice President. Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, 66 years old, specializing in Social Research Methodology. During the 1996-1997 academic year, it promoted the creation of the first doctoral program entitled

. In 2004, together with other colleagues, she promoted the creation of an equality commission on the faculty board of her University.

Puri Lietor.

General Secretary. Health psychologist and feminist activist. Is 53 years old. He has developed his professional career in the private clinic. She is a representative of the Autonomous Platform Front Abolitionist-PV as secretary of the feminist group in her locality. She also belongs to the State Platform Confluence of the Feminist Movement, CEDAW Sombra del País Valencià and the Valencian Feminist Coordinator, in all of them as a representative of her local collective. 

Joan Gallego.

First Deputy Secretary General of FAC. Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona since 1989 and professor at the Faculty of Communication. He is 66 years old. Author of several books, such as

(Icaria, 1990) and, more recently,

(Luces Galibo, 2021). In 2001 he won the first prize for Research from the Consell Audiovisual de Catalunya for a work entitled

Sandra Moreno.

Second Deputy Secretary General of the new party.

Doctor of Law specialized in constitutional law, labor law and feminist studies.

He is 47 years old.

She has worked as a lawyer and legal adviser in the private sector, and has worked as a teacher and researcher at universities and public bodies.

Among others, she has worked as an assistant researcher for the European Commission in the group of experts on sexual orientation.