Parties agree to do more against domestic violence, but in different ways

This Wednesday, the parties agreed that more needs to be done to combat domestic violence, but they pointed to different paths: the SDP is asking for more funds, Chega is tightening punishments, and the left is insisting on the origin of inequality.

In a debate marked by the SDF over domestic violence on International Women’s Day, the PS was the only one to praise the government’s “decisive action” on the issue in the voice of Parliamentary Leader Eurico Brillante Díaz with Socialist MP Isabel Moreira emphasizing the importance of “citizenship education”, and Claudia Santos from the same bench, acknowledging the need to “move faster.”

All benches acknowledged that domestic violence is a problem that mainly affects women and recalled the 24 women and four children killed in 2022.

“For the PSD, every effort must be urgently made to reverse the number of victims (…) We have a country with good laws but poor results. The assessment of the policy is negative, the government needs more,” said the vice-president of the bench, Paula Cardoso, at the end of the debate.

The Social Democrats presented on Tuesday eight legislative initiatives on the issue, including a bill to criminalize the practice of violence against the elderly and recommendations to the government to implement various measures already announced on the ground.

For IL, former President João Cotrim Figueiredo denounced domestic violence as an act “inherently cowardly” after MP Patricia Gilvaz announced during the debate that the party would submit proposals to parliament so that no one could be convicted of domestic violence. inherit from the person who attacked, and insist on special training of magistrates for this crime.

Chega, represented by its leader André Ventura, criticized other parties for rejecting all of his bench’s proposals for harsher punishments for rapists or molesters of minors, and got into a skirmish with BE MP Joana Mortagua, whom he accused of “leftist hypocrisy” and just being worried about the “nonsense of gender identity”.

Earlier, the blockade man said that there is a “global pandemic of violence against women, not only domestic violence, but also gender-based violence” and criticized “a youth leader from Chega who says that women have no appetite for politics.”

“From the painted lips, you can say: “Enough of this, enough of this,” but the data shows that BE was against tougher punishments for rapists, against chemical castration. For me, they will never get out of prison again, ”replied Ventura, leading Joana. Mortagua “offer” him red lipstick “if he needs to call attention to the nonsense he keeps saying”, which he was promptly refused.

From the PAN, MP Inés Sousa Real insisted it was no coincidence that the majority of the aggressors were men: “It’s patriarchy, it’s poisonous machismo,” she said, lamenting that it had spread to the benches of parliament.

PKP MP Alma Rivera considered that the fight against domestic violence could not be separated from the fight against inequality and announced the awarding of two diplomas: one to guarantee greater legal support to victims “at the first contact with the authorities”, and the other to ensure that victims work are strengthened (including justification for the absence or even possible transfer).

“It is necessary to move from paper to land, to actions and investments that are not actually being made,” he urged.

The PS leader welcomed the SDP’s agenda on domestic violence and recalled that the party had chosen to fight this scourge as “a matter for the first legislative session”, ensuring that it would not be abandoned.

“The government and the majority of PS are working in a coordinated manner to ensure that in the future there will be better conditions for supporting victims, protecting victims and combating this scourge,” Brillante Diaz assured at the end of the debate.