Spanish ultraconservative group launches bus campaign against “feminazis”

Spanish ultraconservative Catholic organization Hazte Oír (Make Yourself Heard) has launched a bus campaign against “feminazis” and what it considers “radical feminism.”

The campaign calls on Spain’s conservative political leaders – Pablo Casado from the Popular Party (PP), Albert Rivera from Ciudadanos (Citizens) and Santiago Abascal from the far-right party Vox  – to repeal the 2004 gender violence law and legal protections granted by Spanish regions to the LGBTQI community.

Gender laws discriminate against men

Message on Hazte Oír bus

The bus will travel through several Spanish cities until International Women’s Day on March 8, when a women’s strike and demonstration have been planned.

“It’s not gender violence, it’s domestic violence,” is the main message plastered on the bus. “Gender laws discriminate against men. Casado, Rivera, Abascal: Repeal the gender laws,” is written below.

The bus also features an image of Adolf Hitler wearing makeup and the symbol of feminism on his military cap, above the hashtag “#StopFeminazis.”

The campaign was presented on Thursday in Madrid in the parking lot of the Santiago Bernabèu stadium, which is home to the Real Madrid soccer club. Organizers plan to drive the bus through the streets of the capital and near the headquarters of the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox on Friday. In the following days the bus will travel to Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Cádiz and Pamplona.

This year, Hazte Oír was stripped of its status as a public-service group by the Interior Ministry, which ruled that the organization’s campaigns go against the public interest.

Hazte Oír first made headlines in 2017 when it launched a propaganda campaign against the transgender community, also using a bus. That time the vehicle was plastered with the message: “Boys have penises, girls have vulvas. Don’t let them fool you. If you’re born a man, you’re a man. If you’re a woman, you will continue to be so.”

The Hazte Oír campaign comes amid a resurgence of the far right in Spain. In December of last year, Vox made surprise gains at the regional elections in Andalusia and has since used its position to request the names of government workers who deal with gender violence.

Meanwhile, the growing popularity of Vox has also pushed the PP to take a harder tone on issues like immigration and gender violence in an effort to stop voters from changing their allegiances to Vox at the April 28 general elections.

English version by Melissa Kitson.