A PP deputy from Extremadura accuses "left-wing feminists" of being "silent as doors" and compares them to "Ábalos' catalog of prostitutes"

Hipólito Pacheco, PP deputy in the Extremadura Assembly, ignited parliamentary anger this Thursday by accusing "left-wing feminists" of remaining silent in the face of alleged rapes in Ceuta and by linking his reproach to "Ábalos's catalog of prostitutes," which led the PSOE to demand the withdrawal of his words.

The controversy erupted during the debate of a Vox proposal for a pronouncement on security and the situation of young people in Ceuta. In that turn, Pacheco alluded to sexual assaults that he attributed to "invaders" in a tent in the autonomous city.

The PSOE requests protection and pushes to review the exact content

"The woman raped in a tent in Ceuta... Left-wing feminists have heard that audio, have they said anything?" said Pacheco, before stating that they were "silent as doors" and comparing it to the silence, according to him, linked to "Ábalos's catalog of prostitutes".

In that context, the formulation was partly contested by the reference to a similar expression recorded by the RAE; even so, the PSOE focused the dispute on the procedure and the exact content of what happened, not on the linguistic parallelism.

In response to the accusations, the spokesperson for the socialist group, Isabel Gil Rosiña, requested protection from the Presidency of the Assembly to review the regulations and verify the exact content of the statements. "Mr. Vice President (acting as president) ... in accordance with the Chamber's regulations," she asked that the word not be held, emphasizing that there are "65 men and women who sit here."

Gil Rosiña insisted that the deputy would have told the women on the socialist bench that "we are silent as doors" and asked, "in accordance with the Chamber's regulations," that the session be stopped if necessary and that the deputy withdraw and apologize.

The PP defends Pacheco and he lowers the scope of his phrase

The PP bench came out in defense of the deputy. Its spokesperson, José Ángel Sánchez Juliá, maintained that the socialists "are only hurt when they are told the truth", leaving the pulse open in the hemicycle.

For his part, Hipólito Pacheco later assured that with his words he did not mean what the PSOE accuses him of. With the tension installed in the Chamber, the next step is conditioned on the response given to the request for application of the regulations and to the verification of the content of the statements.