Spanish youth divided along gender lines ahead of European elections

The left-right divide and the gender divide are increasingly mapping onto each other just as Europe looks set to make an ideological lurch.

Transcript

00:00 Spanish youth are divided as they head to the European elections on the 9th of June.

00:06 And the division is not only ideological, but also increasingly gendered, as the political

00:11 views of young men and women become more distant.

00:15 Vera, Adern and Hebe are activists in the feminist association PANI ROSAS. They are

00:20 part of the 40% of women under 24 in Spain who declare themselves left-wing or far-left.

00:25 We come from a process of struggle in which we have been very much at the forefront of

00:32 youth, for example, against the climate crisis. We are the ones who came out to say that there

00:35 was no planet B, or many of us started to politicize feminism.

00:39 The far right is increasingly in certain sectors with a super reactionary discourse of questioning

00:48 the rights of women, migrants, the LGBT collective and others.

00:53 While young women increasingly choose left-wing options, their male counterparts are leaning

00:58 more towards the right.

01:00 Diego Yanez is the president of the conservative student association Libertad Sin Ira.

01:05 Radical feminism is much more than that. It is more about the satanization of the figure

01:10 of man, or treating man as a criminal. It has made many young people rethink their

01:15 position and have opted for this option, which is a little more conservative.

01:20 Gender policies have become a central element of the political party discourse.

01:25 It is true that we are witnessing a political battle that is taking place, as an element

01:31 of articulation of the conflicts that could have been derived from other variables.

01:37 As the left becomes more feminized, far-right parties increasingly appeal to young men who

01:44 feel their privileges are threatened.

01:46 There are very few examples, if we compare with the proliferation of examples in social

01:51 media, which are in charge of a conservative reconstruction of masculinity, which are

01:56 proposing the possibility of another type of masculinity where young people can feel

02:01 recognized.

02:03 The gender struggle among young people could have profound consequences for the European

02:07 Union's policies, distancing the possibility of a future that must necessarily be shared

02:12 between men and women.

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