Spanish government wants to undo the concept of family and redefine it, critics charge

CNA Newsroom, Nov 30, 2022 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pro-family associations in Spain are mobilizing against a new family law, warning that what the executive branch of the government wants is to “undo the concept of family and redefine it from its foundation.”

This law was expected to be approved Tuesday as a royal decree-law by the Council of Ministers for its subsequent ratification in Congress. However, a few hours before the council was to meet, it was announced that the decision had been postponed.

According to the 1978 Spanish Constitution, “in cases of extraordinary and urgent need, the government may issue temporary legislative provisions” called decree-laws.

The Federation of Associations of Large Families of Madrid released a manifesto demanding that “the concept of family that should be promoted and advanced by the state is that of the natural family.”

Thus, a family “is born from the marital union of one man and one woman, which is the union that most fosters the necessary stability for the good of the children,” the manifesto says.

The declaration also maintains that this institution “exists prior to the State and the State can only protect, improve, promote, and defend it.”

Another criticism is that the new law aims to establish up to 16 classes of families. According to the manifesto, “these 16 types of family or those that are added are family circumstances that in no case define what the family is.”

With this concept, “what the government is doing is to undo the concept of family and redefine it from its foundation,” the organizations signing the manifesto pointed out.

Adding their names to the manifesto are the Family Network, Family Policy Institute, Family Take Action, Canary Islands for Life, and Educators Against Indoctrination.

María Menéndez, president of the Association of Large Families and a mother of nine, charged that “for three years Podemos has been weaving this plan to deconstruct the family, dividing it up according to its different circumstances, mixing in ideological and sectarian traps, adding some welfare policy proposal and putting it all together.”

Podemos is the leftist political party that together with the Spanish Socialist Workers Party form the current ruling coalition.

The government seeks to “invent a grotesque and false representation of the family; a legislative trap to redefine the family,” Menéndez explained.

The pro-family leader said that “we must move to action. And this is the first move of this game. A game that must be played because for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good people to stand still and do nothing.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.