Spain: Feminists oppose far-right-backed regional coalition

MADRID – Thousands of Spaniards protested Tuesday against what they perceive as a threat to women’s equality and legal protections from a deal that brought a right-wing coalition to power in Spain’s populous Andalusia region.

Protesters surrounded the parliament in Seville, the regional capital, where the conservative candidate to head the Andalusia government, the Popular Party’s Juan Manuel Moreno, delivered his investiture speech.

Moreno was sworn in on Tuesday with the support of the centre-right Citizens party, which is taking key cabinet positions, and Vox, a far-right anti-feminist party that wants to scrap domestic violence laws.

Some politicians in those parties want the alliance to be replicated at elections in other regions of Spain.

A large evening protest was also held in Madrid, where hundreds of mostly women demonstrators packed the Puerta del Sol downtown square.

Vox also wants to crack down on illegal migration and weaken the European Union.

The new Andalusian cabinet ends 36 years of Socialist rule in the region.