Late final month, amid a roaring crowd, members of the Spanish nationwide soccer crew walked up the rostrum at Accor Stadium, in Sydney, Australia, to be offered with the World Cup trophy. It was a historic victory for Spain—the primary time its ladies’s soccer crew had reached, not to mention gained, the match’s ultimate. Ready for the gamers was a cadre of officers, together with Luis Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation, who stood subsequent to Queen Letizia and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Sofía. TV commentators famous the president’s effusiveness and his disregard for protocol; earlier, he had grabbed his crotch within the stands. However, when he pulled one of many gamers, Jenni Hermoso, towards him and pressed his lips towards hers, the commentators have been conspicuously silent. Minutes later, as fireworks burst within the stadium and the gamers hoisted their trophy, the primary reactions surfaced on-line: “What the hell was he considering?”
Questioned by reporters, Rubiales initially solid his critics as “idiots,” arguing that it had merely been a “peck between two pals.” In Spain and overseas, viewers provided a studying of their very own: Rubiales had abused his authority, in an unmistakable case of assault. As requires his resignation mounted, Rubiales delivered an deal with to the federation during which he described himself as a sufferer of “false feminism.” The kiss had been “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric, and consented to,” Rubiales went on, “precisely the type I might have given a daughter.” He added, to the viewers’s applause, “I’ll not step down.”
Rubiales had been the topic of controversy previously—he has confronted expenses of corruption, in addition to accusations of sponsoring orgies with the federation’s cash, which he categorically denied. The gamers had lengthy expressed frustration with the group. Final fall, fifteen gamers submitted a letter to the federation, saying that they might not play on this 12 months’s World Cup with out modifications in personnel. (Solely three of them did.) “The incident I’ve been concerned in is the ultimate straw,” Hermoso stated, in an announcement launched inside hours of Rubiales’s remarks. “Such attitudes have been a part of our crew’s day-to-day for years.” She made clear that she had by no means consented to the kiss. “No individual, in any work, sports activities, or social setting, needs to be a sufferer of those behaviors,” she wrote.
Hermoso not solely denounced Rubiales; she additionally described the stress she confronted to clear his identify. In personal, members of the federation had referred to as on Hermoso and her household to defend Rubiales and “justify” his habits. The federation issued an announcement backing Rubiales, however, by then, the Spanish public had reached a distinct conclusion. As Alexia Putellas, one of many gamers, stated in a tweet that went viral, “Se acabó”—sufficient.
When the case reached the courtroom, earlier this month, Rubiales submitted his resignation. He’s going through expenses of sexual assault and coercion, owing to his repeated appeals for Hermoso to facet with him. (He pleaded not responsible and continues to disclaim the costs.) The case has provoked new conversations round abuse in élite sports activities and reinvigorated the Spanish #MeToo motion. To debate its evolution, I spoke with Ana Pastor, a outstanding Spanish journalist, who based the media outlet Newtral.
In contrast to in the USA, the talk round #MeToo in Spain had beforehand centered on the accounts of odd ladies, who got here forth with private tales of abuse. Pastor famous that, across the time that the accusations towards Harvey Weinstein surfaced, Spain was consumed by a case often called La Manada—the Pack—involving the gang rape of an eighteen-year-old girl within the metropolis of Pamplona, which made all of it the best way to the Spanish Supreme Courtroom. The graphic nature of the case, together with decrease courts’ choices to clear the defendants of sexual-assault expenses, discovering them responsible of the lesser crime of sexual abuse, drew widespread outcry. In the end, the courtroom elevated the preliminary ruling to rape and the defendants’ sentence from 9 to fifteen years in jail.
Pastor painted an image of a rustic that has gone from suppressing conversations round abuse to brazenly discussing its complexities. Spain can be, like the USA, revisiting previous controversies about gender-based violence. We started our dialogue by speaking about Nevenka Fernández, a former councilwoman within the northern city of Ponferrada, who captured nationwide consideration within the early two-thousands after accusing her then boss, Ponferrada’s mayor, of sexual harassment. In 2021, Pastor co-produced a documentary sequence on the case. Our dialog has been translated from Spanish and edited for size and readability.
I would really like us to return to 2001, the 12 months during which Nevenka Fernández filed her criticism towards Mayor Ismael Álvarez. She was the primary girl to talk up and win a sexual-harassment criticism towards a public determine like Álvarez. How was the information lined again then? What sort of discussions did the case immediate inside newsrooms?
I used to be working in radio, for Cadena SER—these have been my early days as a journalist. And I keep in mind seeing the picture of a really younger girl, fully distraught, showing on tv to ship a information convention. And I additionally keep in mind the backlash—all of the feedback about her, but additionally towards her. The media was—and nonetheless is—a mirrored image of society. There was widespread assist for the mayor however not a lot for the sufferer. You infrequently heard arguments in her favor.
You partnered with Netflix a number of years in the past to provide a documentary about Nevenka’s case. Inform me how the undertaking got here into being, and why you determined it was the proper time to convey her story again.
I grew to become obsessed together with her story, partly as a result of I sensed that, ultimately, she was being left socially remoted. She and I’ve recognized one another for virtually twenty years, and for a very long time we talked about the potential for her telling her story, till, one summer season, she instructed me, “Ana, I really feel prepared.”
We travelled out of Spain, the place she lives together with her household, and we started filming. Deep down, my dream was to indicate her that this nation had modified and that, this time round, individuals would reply otherwise and say, “In fact, we stand with you, Nevenka.” As a matter of truth, across the première, we held a stay debate in a packed theatre to speak about how Nevenka has modified the historical past of harassment in our nation. We needed to determine if individuals in Spain noticed Nevenka with totally different eyes. We invited numerous Spanish public figures from totally different generations, and we realized that that was certainly the case. The response from the general public has since been “I’m sorry, Nevenka.” And, additionally, “Thanks, Nevenka.” Thanks, as a result of she charted a path, judicially and socially, that has improved the lives of many different ladies.
It took twenty-two years for the city of Ponferrada to formally acknowledge Nevenka’s case and for Ponferrada metropolis corridor, the place she labored alongside the mayor, to difficulty a public apology. How do you clarify that lag?
Effectively, it’s the evolution of our nation, and I want to suppose that of many others. It’s true that it has taken 20 years. That man nonetheless lives in Ponferrada. He has continued to solid doubts on the sentence—despite the fact that it wasn’t only one courtroom however two that dominated in favor of Nevenka. That is one thing that I’ve talked about at size together with her. The entire harassment course of was very painful. However what damage her essentially the most was feeling as alone as she was. I believe that has now modified one way or the other.
The city’s public apology coincided with one other case that has shocked Spain—and, arguably, the world—that of Jenni Hermoso, the Spanish soccer participant. What was your preliminary response to the undesirable kiss?
I used to be watching the sport surrounded by youngsters, together with my very own. The very first thing I instructed myself was, This can’t be—it simply can’t be. And I believe that could be very symptomatic. Possibly a number of years in the past, we wouldn’t have given it a lot significance. However, in a matter of hours, nearly all of Spain had the identical response.
What occurred afterward additional uncovered Rubiales’s character: he sought to coerce Jenni; tried to get her to talk publicly and ship a message that wasn’t true; after which the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation issued an announcement that was attributed to Jenni with out her approval.
