The terrible feminicide in Figueres forces us to ask an uncomfortable but essential question: what happens to a man that leads him to murder his partner in broad daylight? What breaks for someone to decide that rather than lose control over a woman, they prefer to annihilate her?
For years, we have explained these crimes as if they were sudden explosions of rage or madness. But more and more experts insist that feminicide is not an inexplicable impulse. It is, often, the last step in a gradual process of control, possession, and dehumanization. No man kills "out of the blue"; there is an escalation.
Studies on feminicides point to recurring factors such as an extreme need for control, inability to manage frustration, a history of violence, or experiencing a breakup as an intolerable humiliation. When a woman reports, leaves, or sets boundaries, some aggressors do not interpret it as a legitimate decision but as a loss of power. And it is here that violence becomes radicalized.
Sociologist Rita Segato explains that many feminicides are related to the male need to "restore sovereignty" over a woman they consider theirs. The problem is not just anger, but the deep conviction that that woman belongs to him.
This is why many feminicides occur after a breakup or a report. The Figueres case is particularly impactful due to its brutality and public exposure, but also because there was a restraining order in place. The victim had reported him. There were precedents. And despite everything, she was murdered. This leaves a devastating sense of institutional and collective failure. Because a judicial order is essential, but paper alone does not stop a man determined to kill. We must reflect on this in depth.
It is also impossible to ignore the social context. The denialist discourses of male violence have ceased to be marginal. Feminism is trivialized, accusations are questioned, and men are presented as victims of alleged persecution. This climate does not automatically create murderers, but it does fuel frustrations and masculinities built on resentment. And this is very dangerous.
According to the Ministry of Equality, more than 1,300 women have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners in Spain since 2003. The figures are too persistent and painful to continue talking about isolated cases.
Behind every femicide there is a life cut short, devastated families and a collective wound that cannot be normalized. That is why, in the face of denialist noise, now more than ever we must continue to stand up. But resisting is not enough. We must also continue to review ourselves, rethink ourselves, and act as a society so that this does not happen again. Because every woman murdered is also proof of what we have still been unable to prevent.
