The Delegate of the Government in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, presided over the minute of silence that has been kept at the doors of the Palau del Temple, headquarters of the Delegation of the Government, in revulsion for the last two cases of male violence registered in the towns of Orihuela Costa (Alicante) and Castelló.
At the end of the event, Barnabas said that “today we condemn gender violence, naming it as it should be in order to combat it”. And he stressed that “both the Valencian Community and Spain are suffering an unusual increase in femicides. We need governments and institutions that condemn gender-based violence without fissures. Society has assumed that this fight belongs to everyone, so we must not enter into confrontations or doubts. We cannot play with words, nor with the victims and their families.”
Barnabas said that “all the institutions and municipalities that today may not go out to condemn this violence are not doing our society any favours. Today throughout the Valencian Community we have to unite to defend a fight that has managed to make visible a scourge like this”.
With the cases of male violence in Orihuela Costa (Alicante) and Castelló, the number of women murdered by their partners and ex-partners in the Valencian Community has risen to 5 so far this year, and to 47 throughout Spain.
Since 2003, the number of women killed has risen to 1,231. Of these, 153 in the Valencian Community.