in Spain, the unsolicited kiss of the president of the Football Federation to Jennifer Hermoso does not pass – Liberation

2023-08-21 18:31:27

2023 FIFA Women’s World CupfileSpanish ministers, politicians and media denounce the behavior of Luis Rubiales during the medal presentation to the world champions after their victory against England on Sunday August 20.

“Let’s not consider kissing someone without their consent to be something that ‘happens’. It is a form of sexual violence from which we women suffer on a daily basis, which until today has been invisible, and which should not be normalized. The day after Spain’s victory at the Women’s World Cup on Sunday August 20, the Spanish Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, slams X (ex-Twitter) the behavior of the President of the Football Federation Spaniard, Luis Rubiales, who allowed himself, during the medal ceremony, to kiss striker Jennifer Hermoso on the lips by surprise. Also this Monday, August 21, Irene Montero, known for her feminist commitments, continued her remarks by teaching about sexual violence, which “is not defined by the great or the small intensity of violence or intimidation. with which they are exercised, but by the absence of consent”.

“Disgusting machismo”

“What could I do? I didn’t like it,” Jennifer Hermoso said on a live Instagram shot in La Roja’s locker room, a few moments after the victory, before temporizing by evoking, in a press release sent by the Spanish Federation, “a gesture natural affection and gratitude”. However, the controversy does not die down. The Minister for Social Rights, Ione Belarra, a member of the left-wing Podemos party like her colleague for Equality, also described as “sexual violence” the behavior of Luis Rubiales deemed “unacceptable” by the Socialist Minister for Culture and at Sports Miquel Iceta.

Calls for the resignation of the person concerned are increasing. The autonomous community of Catalonia is already demanding his departure, as reported by the sports daily Sports world, as is the former Minister of Labor and current Vice-President of the Government, the communist Yolanda Díaz. The condemnations emanate from the entire Spanish left, from the Socialists to the Greens. “Rubiales should submit his resignation tomorrow. The image he presented to the world is that of repugnant machismo. He cannot go unpunished”, pleads the ecologist MEP Ernest Urtasun.

Rubiales insults his detractors then changes his mind

Luis Rubiales first stepped over the controversy in a bravado posture with flowery language, sweeping in an interview with the El Partidazo podcast “bullshit” reported by “idiot and stupid people”, for which one should not “waste one’s time “, especially him who “has been through so much” and now refuses “bullshit and assholes”. Undoubtedly aware that responding with disdain to the emotion and condemnations aroused by his gesture was not very successful for him, he finally backed down on Monday afternoon. In a video posted on social networks, Luis Rubiales assured that while no one “understood” the controversy in the national team (for whom his gesture would be unanimously seen as “natural and normal”), he was “asking for forgiveness if someone was injured”. Adding that “we must learn the lessons and understand that when we occupy such a position, that of president of the Federation, we must be more careful”.

Not sure that such excuses are enough to extinguish the controversy, as they seem ambivalent, between recognition of having been able to offend the public and normalization of his gesture. Especially since this behavior, broadcast on millions of screens around the world, has had an impact far beyond the Spanish selection. The daily El Pais sees it as “an attack on Spain’s number 10 and on all the women whose hearts exploded in their chests this Sunday when we screamed with joy at the moment of Olga Carmona’s goal”, who offered the Cup to her teammates. An “attack” that could hurt all those for whom consent is a categorical imperative. And in particular women who love, watch, practice football or any other sport in which they wish – for themselves and for the champions they admire – to be able to play and thrive without fear of being sexually assaulted.