Spanish deputies agreed on Tuesday, June 7 to examine a bill on prostitution tabled by the Socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in order in particular to penalize customers, an issue that divides the left in power.
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In a country where prostitution benefits from a legal vagueness allowing a multitude of brothels to be authorized or tolerated, this text responds to Pedro Sanchez's promise to "
abolish
" prostitution.
But it arouses opposition from part of the left, certain feminist movements and associations for the defense of sex workers who advocate the regulation of prostitution and believe that such a law would only favor networks of pimps. .
A “prohibitionist” text
This bill aims in particular to penalize customers as other European countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Norway and Sweden have already done.
If it is adopted, they could be sentenced to fines of several thousand euros and to prison terms if the prostitute is a minor.
The Socialists also want to toughen the arsenal against pimping, understood as any form of "
domination
" over a prostitute, with penalties ranging from three to six years in prison, compared to two to five currently, and fines of several thousand dollars. euros.
The fact of providing premises to a prostitute would also become an aggravating circumstance for a pimp, while the "
exploitative " relationship
“lucrative, now necessary criminally, will no longer be, which will also prosecute relatives of prostitutes.
This text also aims to grant prostitutes the status of victims and the rights to assistance that go with it.
Created last year, the first Spanish union of sex workers Otras judged that the text of the socialists was "
not abolitionist but prohibitionist
" and that "
prohibitions created mafias
".
“
These measures lead us to disappear without any type of help being provided to us
,” he added.
Official estimates range from 45,000 to 120,000 prostitutes in Spain.
The majority are in an irregular situation.
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According to a survey by a public institute dating from 2008, the latest on this subject, almost a third (32.1%) of Spanish men have already resorted to prostitution.
The Socialists initially wanted to introduce these measures via an amendment to the flagship Explicit Sexual Consent Bill, called “
only a yes is a yes
” and passed first reading by MPs last week.
But faced with the lack of consensus with their radical left partners in Podemos on prostitution, they finally decided to submit a bill solely on this subject.