Friday, March 29

Irene Montero visits the White House in full NATO summit


Washington correspondent

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With the President of the United States in Spain, where a NATO summit is taking place, the Spanish Minister for Equality, Irene Monterohas been invited to the White House to, as she has said, “work for strengthening international feminist alliancess». During her visit, the minister has verified “the strong harmony” that exists between the Biden Administration and the Spanish Government, according to what she has told after her.

Montero has arrived in Washington a week after the US Supreme Court annulled in a ruling the constitutional right to abortion, which had been in force since 1973. According to what the minister said in conversation with the press at the Spanish embassy, ​​this ruling “will surely imply not only a setback in effective access to abortion for millions of women in the United Statesbut also access to sexual and reproductive rights, such as contraception.

Montero, the prime minister of Podemos in the coalition government that has had bilateral meetings in Washingtonhas been seen this Wednesday with Chiraag BainsDeputy Assistant to President Biden for Racial Justice and Equity, and Jennifer Kleinexecutive director of the White House gender policy council.

It so happens that the current US ambassador to Spain, Julia Reynoso, was previously director of that gender policy council, as well as chief of staff to the first lady, Jill Biden. Montero has not had meetings at the ministerial level.

Criticism of the Popular Party

Unlike other ministers before her, Montero has criticized the opposition during the official trip to Washington, when talking about austerity measures and defending the work of his government. “We are doing a very important job in reversing the dependency cuts that the Popular Party carried out in the worst years of the crisis, we have already reversed the cuts and we are also making historic investments to transform the dependency model in our country” , has said.

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Asked if she felt censored at the press conference after the Council of Ministers this week, when the spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez refused to give her the floor to speak about the deaths of 37 sub-Saharans on the Moroccan border with Melilla, the minister said: “You know that I am always available for give all the explanations and my political information too. In the political field from the beginning I think I have already answered that question sufficiently. They will always have me available to express my opinion.

Encounters with feminist icons

In his conversation with the press, Montero has denounced on up to four occasions the existence of “international reactionary sectors that place the rights of women and LGBTI people at the center of their attacksand that achieve that in countries with a long democratic tradition there may be setbacks in rights».

According to the minister, the existence of these reactionary groups reaffirms “that conviction that now more than ever international feminist alliances are necessary to deepen our democracies and to guarantee dignified lives for everyone and specifically, for more than half of the population that we are women».

This Thursday, the minister will be seen with Gloria Steineman iconic figure of North American feminism, and with the Executive Director of UN Women, Chasm Bahous. On Friday she visits the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, a legal advocacy organization that seeks to promote abortion access.

Montero is accompanied on her visit by the Secretary of State for Equality and against Gender Violence, Angela Rodriguez.

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