Irene Montero, on the threat from a neo-Nazi group: “He says he's going to murder me in my home.”

Депутат Европарламента от партии Podemos Ирене Монтеро (Мадрид, 38 лет) была мишенью для правых и ультраправых задолго до того, как заняла пост министра по вопросам равенства в прошлом созыве парламента. Привыкшая к критике, порой жестокой, со стороны политических противников и преследованиям в социальных сетях, в воскресенье, 8 марта, она заявила, что получила угрозы смерти от неонацистской организации, считающейся террористической по версии Министерства юстиции США и ФБР. Речь идет о группе 764, основанной в Техасе и находящейся под влиянием сатанинских доктрин, как подтверждают ее окружение. «Если они хотят с помощью этого политического насилия удалить нас из публичного пространства, то у них это не получится», — предупреждает она в разговоре с EL PAÍS в понедельник. Вопрос. Когда начались угрозы и в чем они заключались? Ответ. Мне сообщили об этом в субботу, это был ряд угроз, отправленных по электронной почте в различные организации и учреждения, о которых я не имею подробной информации, и именно полиция их идентифицировала и передала нам. В. Как вы думаете, что преследуют эти сообщения? О. The police have classified it as a terrorist threat because the guy who identifies himself as the author of the emails claims to belong to a group that is a neo-Nazi organization considered by the FBI and the US Department of Justice to be a terrorist organization, also in Canada, and which has carried out various actions of this kind, by lone wolves, which are under investigation or have already been tried. The threat is a direct death threat. He says he is going to kill me in my home. He sends it to different agencies, and it is the police who detect it and give it the most importance because he himself says he is part of that organization. Q. Has the Interior Ministry responded or at least given you a deadline for providing protection? A. They are on top of it and we will be in constant contact until it is clear that this threat can be considered resolved. Q. How do you feel? A. It is a risky situation, especially because he is targeting my home, where my children and my partner live, which should be a very safe space, and also because of the importance the police are giving it. Every day I receive threats, insults, and humiliation on social media from a lot of people who hide behind their Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram profiles and say all kinds of things to me. Some are in the comments on my posts and others are sent to me privately, but this is a step further. When you spend all day generating hatred and normalizing political violence and paying, as the PP does to Vito Quiles, to harass women who are occupying public space by proposing left-wing or feminist measures, as happens to Sarah Santaolalla or Laura Arroyo, in the end someone takes it a step further. So, what I feel is a lot of anger, apart from fear and the need to protect my loved ones and myself, and that's why I've also spoken about it publicly. So that they know that if what they intend to achieve with this political violence is to drive us away from the public space, they're not going to succeed. Q. You have always been the target of a lot of criticism from the right. Have you ever considered giving up? A. This is a strategy of political violence that has nothing to do with legitimate criticism in a democracy; it is a strategy designed by the most reactionary sectors to expel feminist women who are involved in politics from the public sphere. That is precisely why I am not considering giving up. On the contrary, we have to organize, defend ourselves together, and show them that their political violence is not effective, because the more effective it is, the more they will use it to expel us and remain alone. Q. Do you think this strategy of persecution against women who are on the front line is going to get worse? A. It is getting worse because they need it to get worse. Yesterday [Sunday] was March 8, and there were thousands of women in the streets. All the terror we see with these super-rich people who are imposing war to make more money, to control oil, natural resources, the model in which they have an alternative proposal for the world and society is feminism. The main democratic victories we have achieved in recent years, even in the midst of a brutal reactionary wave with Trump, with Netanyahu, with two years of genocide, are being achieved by women, such as the approval of the definition of consent the other day in the European Parliament or the regularization process led by migrant women, in addition to anti-racism and feminism. So, of course they need to raise the level of violence, because the more violence they use, the more likely they are to succeed. And even more so when they are leading us into a world where there are no longer any rules and bombs, the kidnapping of a president, and an illegal invasion can be imposed by brute force and nothing happens here. Q. A few weeks ago, the Fad Youth barometer indicated that more than half of men aged 15 to 29 see feminism as a tool for political manipulation. What has been done wrong? A. They think that because it is exactly what they hear every day on the radio, on television, in viral TikTok videos, and on social media channels that are paid for by the PP and Vox. The strange thing is that not everyone thinks that way. У них есть стратегия, согласно которой на протяжении многих лет все, от владельцев крупных СМИ до ютуберов, финансируемых правыми и крайне правыми силами, постоянно говорят, что быть левым и феминистом — это плохо и это проблема, что поднимать шум — это плохо, и что, тем не менее, фашизм является совершенно нормальным явлением. На любом телеканале этой страны можно безбоязненно заявить, что насилие не имеет пола, и ничего страшного не произойдет; сказать, что транс-женщина — это мужчина с пенисом и что женщин с пенисами не существует, что это трансфобия, — это совершенно нормально, и зачастую никто не возражает. Итак, когда они слышат это каждый день в основных СМИ и в социальных сетях, которые также принадлежат крайне правым деятелям, таким как Илон Маск, которые зарабатывают деньги на антифеминистской, антитрансгендерной и анти-ЛГБТИ ненависти, как могут не быть молодые люди, которые так думают? И все же сейчас больше, чем когда-либо, девушек-феминисток и парней-феминистов. В. Что показывает прерывание феминистского монолога в субботу в Кольядо-Вильяльба? О. То, что такое PP, партия, которая всегда выступала против всех без исключения прав женщин: против развода, против абортов, против закона о равенстве; которая ведет открытую войну против закона о сексуальной свободе. Specifically, this woman is from Ayuso's PP party, which says that feminists are spoiled, that what we need is a Men's Day, that what puts us in danger is feminism. If people are free, if wealth is distributed, if people have guaranteed rights, they will not vote for them, and then they will not be able to maintain their power. Furthermore, in these times, they are showing that they still have a coup-mongering soul that respects democracy only when it suits them and when they win.