At the medal ceremony after Spain won the World Cup final on August 20, Luis Rubiales gave Jenni Hermoso a forced kiss on the mouth, which sparked endless national and international criticism from all areas of society. Hermoso says that she didn’t want to be kissed.
“I felt vulnerable and the victim of an attack,” Hermoso said in a statement last Friday, after Rubiales stated that the kiss had been “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consensual.”
The Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, also met on Monday with representatives of the FUTPRO players union, which represents Hermoso, and the Association of Spanish Soccer Players.
“What happened does not represent Spanish society. Our country is exemplary in equality,” said the number three of the Spanish government, Yolanda Díaz, who asked the RFEF to comply with the rules of equality and parity by renewing its organs to give more room for women.
“Parity is key to the fight against sexist violence, but also against sexist stereotypes that, as we see, seem to be a normality in the federation,” he said.
The president of the Women’s League, Beatriz Álvarez, called for the resignation of all those who applauded Rubiales’ speech refusing to resign.
In Motril, the mother of Luis Rubiales, Ángeles Béjar, began a hunger strike in a church in the Andalusian town where Rubiales grew up, to denounce a campaign of “harassment and demolition” against her son and to ask that “Jenni tell the truth”. .
Rubiales’ mother told the Spanish agency EFE that his hunger strike will last “until a solution is found to the inhumane and bloody hunt that they are carrying out against my son with something he does not deserve.”
Gender issues are a prominent issue in Spain. Tens of thousands of women have taken part in street marches to protest sexual abuse and violence and the Socialist-led coalition government has reformed laws such as those on equal pay and the right to abortion.
Feminist groups called a demonstration on Monday in Madrid under the slogan “With you Jenni.” Hundreds of people participated in another on Sunday in Salamanca against Rubiales.
With information from AFP and Reuters