The dispute between the People's Party (PP) and Vox is a hot topic with the regional election cycle, in which the far right is gaining ground on Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party. But Santiago Abascal's party's rise has been noticeable in the polls for some time now, including at the national level. In recent months, according to the Center for Sociological Research (CIS), the Vox leader has already surpassed Feijóo in the polls for the position of Prime Minister of Spain. Neither has come close to Pedro Sánchez—who has twice as many supporters—but there has been a substantial shift in the trend over the past year. From the elections of July 23, 2023, until April 2024, the PP leader led the Vox leader by more than ten points as the preferred candidate to occupy the Moncloa Palace (the Prime Minister's official residence). The gap continued to narrow until it reached two points in November 2024, after Vox withdrew from all regional governments and lost all governmental responsibilities. And in 2025 the 'overtaking' occurred, which is still in the latest barometer.

One of the hottest debates this week in the Congress of Deputies It has been the burka ban promoted by VoxAlthough it failed to pass and only garnered the votes of the People's Party (PP), the far-right initiative opened the floodgates of discussion on the appropriateness of prohibiting the use of the full-face veil. Together for Catalonia (Juntos) presented a bill on the same day to ban it in public spaces—a text that the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) has agreed to consider—the PP followed suit two days later, and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) has also submitted its own proposal. According to party sources, the Republicans are not in favor of prohibiting the full-face veil and imposing criminal penalties on women who violate it, but they do advocate for "discouraging" its use through mandatory community service. This is their "effective solution" to "end the burka" while preventing the measure from harming the women who wear it, they believe. "Making the burka a crime will isolate them even more," warned ERC leader Oriol Junqueras this week.

The ban on the full-face veil is a recurring debate in Catalonia and Spain, but it has never been addressed in depth. Now the PSOE is willing to talk with Junts, which has submitted a bill.just as they did in Parliament– to ban the burka in public spaces. This was the reaction of the members of the regional assembly following their vote against the bill presented by Vox on the same matter. which has only had the support of the PP and which Congress rejected with 177 votes against, 170 in favor, and one abstention.

Recently, the Catalan Alliance's motion, presented with the support of Vox, seeking to ban various forms of the Islamic veil in public spaces or institutions such as schools and institutes, was rejected. This sought to revive an old debate that began in Catalonia in 2010. Today, around twenty Catalan municipalities still have ordinances with some form of prohibition.

Just after the 17-A attacks, I attended a closed-door meeting where a prominent member of the ERC party uttered the following statement: "The proof that Catalonia is a land of welcome is that next term we will have a handkerchief in the Parliament." A handkerchief, he said. Not a woman with a degree, a master's degree, and professional experience of immigrant and Muslim origin. No, for him (a man), what stood out most about Najat Driouech (who, by the way, I will always be grateful for letting me have the notes of the subjects we took together during our studies) was what she had in her head. This is how a party with "republican" in its name turns into multicultural fetish the symbol of women's oppression by religiousizing citizens, especially women born in Islam. Equality. Identity of men's power over women his women. We thus become more of ours that from here. Maybe receptions, but marked, cornered, and assimilated into the religious ghetto. Driouech visited mosques during the election campaign, with the audience segregated, and was presented to us as "the first Moroccan member of Parliament," when, in fact, in the same legislature, another woman achieved exactly the same feat: Salwa El Gharbi. The latter's activism for Amazigh women went nowhere; no one took her as a role model, nor did anyone celebrate her breaking the glass ceiling imposed by her origins. What's the difference between the two? El Gharbi isn't covered up, and since she isn't covered up, she's no longer representative. In other words: she's not a proper Moor.

The clairvoyant Ferran Sáez Mateu did, yesterday, another article of yours, thoughtful, essential, lucid, well-eaten and easy to digest, on the use of the veil, and the political debate it has generated in our country. We all know that he threw the baseball pitcher of the Catalan Alliance and the baptizer of Junts has tried to take over, unsuccessfully.

A few days ago, The Parliament rejected the motion of the Catalan Alliance to ban the Islamic veil. All of this generated, in turn, significant ideological turbulence within Junts and, consequently, within the chamber that represents the entirety of Catalan society. Allow me to raise the question beyond the purely partisan bickering: are we debating a political issue here or a question of cultural values in a broad sense? It's worth remembering that they are different things. If it is a question of values, is the center of gravity of the debate the idea of tolerance understood in the pre-political sense? permissiveness or in political terms of recognitionClarifying this ambiguity, in any case, would not resolve the true core of the problem, which is not that of tolerance itself but rather its limits in the context of a democratic society that participates—regardless of the degree and language—in the phenomenon of cultural diversity. Clarifying the limits of tolerance can easily shift to two rocky extremes: the adoption of attitudes close to extreme cultural relativism ("anything goes," "every difference is good," etc.) or to exclusionary ethnocentrism (even if camouflaged, in this case, by the defense of Western values).

Allow me the verbal trap, but I think it can serve to open our eyes even further in the current debate on the public use of the Islamic veil. Left-wing parties believe that a secular state should give everyone the freedom to dress as they wish, whether with religious connotations or not, while the other parties argue that secularism should precisely free women (and especially girls) from wearing the veil, or protect them from a patriarchal tradition. Both positions cite secularism as the basis of their arguments, although the far right emphasizes the protection of Christian or Catholic tradition. But what we often miss is that we do live in a secular society. Much more than we think. It's not exactly a religion, but it is a dogma. A series of undeniable principles. Almost a faith.

On certain issues, it's impossible to be equidistant. The women's veil, if compulsory, is unquestionably a sexist garment in any of its forms. Evidently, the more parts of the body it covers, the more serious this is, because that's precisely what they're trying to do: to prevent women from showing their bodies, as if anyone's physique were something to be ashamed of. The veil is comparable to the systematic display of a sexist banner, and for that reason alone, its use can be considered a form of violence against women, just one of the many that some religions, in fact, publicly defend.

The 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.

Together he has shown himself to be a supporter this Wednesday to ban the Islamic veil in schools during compulsory education—a position also held by the People's Party—while the Catalan Alliance has promoted a motion in the Parliament, which will be rejected this Thursday, calling for the Generalitat (Catalan government) to ban this religious symbol in all public spaces. This is not a new debate and has already been replicated within European states. What is the regulation in neighboring countries? Below, ARA correspondents detail what is happening in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany.

Juntos wants to ban the Islamic veil in schools; the burqa and niqab in public spaces; and the burkini in swimming pools. The party made this statement to the media on Tuesday after, as ARA reported, this issue shook the executive branch on Monday, where different sensitivities surfaced within the party. The party leadership had this discussion following the Catalan Alliance motion, which will be voted on this Thursday in Parliament and advocates banning the Islamic veil in all public spaces.