The Ministry of Equality wants to penalize “third party rentals”
The Equality department of the Spanish executive is working on a new legislative initiative to close brothels. This was announced by the recent Minister Ana Redondo in a speech before the Equality Commission of Congress, assuring that she will shortly present a proposal to sanction “third party leases” – a legal figure that refers to the transfer of real estate or premises for the practice of prostitution, which is intended to attack the owners of the clubs and establishments that benefit from this activity. The idea of sanctioning brothels had already been debated, as Redondo herself recalls, at the end of the previous legislature, but it was not approved due to the regulatory impediment posed by the advance of the general elections. The current head of the portfolio affirms that similar measures already work in other countries, and she calls for a “large majority” and an “intense, rigorous and deep social debate” to fully implement it.
The sanction of brothels requires an “alternative” for women who practice prostitution
The sanction of brothels implies, however, an “alternative” for women who practice prostitution in the State, about 60,000, according to Redondo’s own words. The minister calls for measures to help these women, many of them in a particularly vulnerable material situation. Thus, she will seek an “economic, residential and occupational solution” that allows “a dignified and fair life.” To begin a process of these dimensions, however, the socialist reiterates the commitment to “include third party rentals in the Penal Code and prohibit them.”
Roadmap to abolition
Redondo herself proposes the closure of prostitution establishments as a first step, “not definitive, but important” in a long road map towards abolition, a dominant position within the PSOE. In fact, in the words of the same person responsible for equality, “as a socialist, I will not deny that abolitionism is an end.” The proposal, however, was dropped from the coalition government’s program due to the differences on this matter that they still maintain with their government partner, Sumar. The minister, however, has not confirmed whether only the sanction of brothels will be resumed or if the entire law against pimping that the socialists promoted at the end of the last legislature will return. The proposal had already reached Congress with the support of the Popular Party and Podemos, although sectors of Yolanda Díaz’s current space, such as the Commons, were opposed.
