The 25N takes thousands of people to the streets to cry out against sexist violence

The Civil Guard arrested a 17-year-old boy in Orihuela as the alleged perpetrator of the murder of a 15-year-old girl, his ex-partner. Another man, 42 years old, was arrested in the south of Tenerife for trying to kill his partner, a 33-year-old woman, in front of her one-year-old daughter. The Government Delegation against Gender Violence confirmed this Sunday’s case in Estepa as a sexist crime: a man killed his wife. This is how this November 25 began, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, an emblematic date on which feminist organizations call for marches and rallies. Thousands of people take to the streets in cities and towns to cry out against machismo and its most extreme version, gender violence.

“We are not all here, the murdered ones are missing,” is one of the slogans heard when the demonstration called by the 8M Commission begins in Madrid. Ana Useros, spokesperson for the 8M Commission, assures that this year’s motto – ‘Together fear changes sides’ – wants to convey “that to end sexual, sexist and sexist violence” the solution has to be “structural”. In the capital, as for two years, two different marches are taking place. The other is convened by the Madrid Feminist Forum. Its spokesperson, Carmen Flores, also mentions the structural nature of both violence and solutions: “It comes from the patriarchal system and it is what we have to combat, that is why our motto is ‘Fight sexism’.”

Also in Valencia there are two separate calls this 25N. This does not happen in most cities, such as Barcelona, ​​Bilbao, Seville, Toledo, Oviedo or Cádiz. In the Toledo march is Consuelo, 87 years old, crutch in hand. He has come from the town of Alameda de la Sagra because “it’s fine now” and he is “at his best” to blow his whistle: “We have to make a fuss to end the injustices.” Hundreds of people have attended the protest call of the Toledo 8M Platform, despite the fact that this year the PP and Vox City Council decided not to hold the historic demonstration of the local Women’s Council.

This year’s 25N comes amid another wave of testimonies of sexual harassment and violence. The Errejón case has led to another rise in the word: the testimonies of several women about the behavior exercised by the former deputy and his resignation have stirred the dissemination of hundreds of stories of women who report violence of varying intensity in their families, with their partners, in their workplaces or on the street.