Parliament rejects the Islamic veil motion defended by the Catalan Alliance and Vox

BarcelonaThe Catalan Alliance's motion proposing to ban the Islamic veil has failed in the Catalan Parliament. The Catalan chamber overturned it with votes against from all parties except Vox, which had negotiated some points with Sílvia Orriols's party and the PP. However, the far-right party's initiative has shaken together, which has spoken out in favor of banning the veil in schools despite voting against it, along with the other parties that signed the cordon sanitaire (the PSC, Esquerra, Comuns, and the CUP). The text has generated a controversial debate, with a clash between the mayor of Ripoll and Junts deputy David Saldoni, who accused her of succumbing to "hatred" against Muslims. For its part, the Catalan Alliance has criticized the council members for having "plagiarized" their position—although Sílvia Orriols's party wants to ban the veil everywhere, not just in classrooms—and for having become their "white label." From the left side of the chamber, the groups clutched their heads over a measure they consider contrary to religious freedom, while defending the need to fight discrimination against women. In fact, from the Catalan government, the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, has stated in statements to the media that the ban on headscarves in schools does not fit with current regulations.

Despite the fact that the chamber rejected the text, the Catalan Alliance has threatened to challenge Junts on this issue again. From the podium of the Parliament, Silvia Orriols announced that she will modify the ordinance in Ripoll to ban the Islamic headscarf in schools and said she expects a favorable vote from the council members. "Welcome to the far right [...] What will you do with Agustí Colomines and the rest of the Cuperos you have infiltrated?" she told them, in a speech full of attacks on the Muslim community and immigration, and which concluded by accusing Carles Puigdemont's party of "cynicism."

In what was his final plenary session as a deputy—he will work in the private sector—Saldoni defended Junts's vote against the motion and, at the same time, a position in favor of banning the Islamic veil in schools, as well as the burqa, niqab, and burkini in public spaces. He did so by distancing himself from the Catalan Alliance: "You are crossing a much more serious line, the promotion of hatred; you are focusing on a specific group." Therefore, he said that Orriols "hates" and that "Catalonia cannot be built this way," among other reasons because it "generates Catalanophobia." Junts believes it is necessary to "provide solutions" to a debate that "was already opened in 2010" to avoid "impositions" on minors. Thus, Saldoni warned Orriols that they want "more Laminas Yamales" and for citizens, regardless of their religion, to make Catalonia their country.

Criticism from the left

Esquerra has closely followed Junts, moving closer, in its view, to the position of the Catalan Alliance. "A state party addresses these issues from a central perspective. A state party doesn't copy even a little of your proposals," MP Joan Ignasi Elena told Sílvia Orriols. He also pointed out other forms of discrimination within other religions, although he admitted that the oppression of women "is sometimes expressed through the veil." For her part, PSC spokesperson Elena Díaz stated that the Catalan Alliance seeks to "use women to sustain a racist and Islamophobic discourse," while Andrés García Berrio (Comuns) accused it of acting "against coexistence" and ignoring the range of discrimination against women. From the ranks of the CUP, Pilar Castillejo has stressed that she has never heard Orriols "say anything about the Orthodox Jewish community" - the Catalan Alliance is a staunch defender of Israel - and the "discrimination" against women, and has reproached Junts for being "delighted to occupy the ideological framework that benefits this extreme right", feeding the right-wing world.

On Orriols has found allies has been in Vox, after an intense negotiation –as explained by ARA–, and in the PP. The deputy of the far-right Spanish party, Sergio Macián, has even claimed the work of "seven centuries of expelling Islam from our land", since Jaime I. "We have made several amendments, we thank you for having accepted many of them", he told Silvia Orriols, to whom he only threw a reproach. "For his part, the spokesperson for the PP, Juan Fernández, defended the prohibition of the veil in the classrooms and the niqab and burka everywhere, and urged a choice: "An open and Christian Europe or a Europe of silenced and completely covered women".

Education defends the veil in the classrooms

On the other hand, the Catalan government is already anticipating possible future attempts to reopen this debate and warns that banning the veil in classrooms has no place within the current legislative framework. In statements to the press, the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, warned that preventing Muslim students from wearing the veil violates religious freedom. She also urged a distinction between this symbol, "protected by the regulatory framework," and the "full veil," such as the burqa and the niqab, and recalled that regulations do not allow clothing or veils to hinder the development of teaching activities or communication with students. The Union of Islamic Communities of Catalonia also harshly criticized Junts' proposal to ban veils in schools, calling it "discriminatory" and calling for "responsibility."

In the failed motion, Vox and Aliança Catalana also called for going a step further and banning the wearing of headscarves in the Parliament, both for female members of parliament and chamber staff. This measure targeted ERC member Najat Driouech, whom Silvia Orriols singled out in her interventions in the plenary session, accusing her of representing "Islamic misogyny." The ERC group has asked the Statute of Deputies Committee to investigate whether the leader of the Catalan Alliance has violated the code of conduct. of the deputies. Furthermore, the motion from the far-right pro-independence party also declared Islam "incompatible with Western values," something Vox and Aliança Catalana voted for, while the PP abstained.