Sumar seeks to present to Congress a portrait of the historic leader of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) Dolores Ibarruri ‘Pasionaria’who was a deputy in the Constituent Cortes, and to obtain the support of the PP, she proposes to also include a painting of the former Minister of Agriculture and “popular” deputy Loyola de Palacio.
The presence of women on the walls of the Palais des Congrès, excluding queens, is limited to the portraits of the Presidents of the Chamber or the images of Clara Campoamorpromoter of the female vote in the Constitution of 1931. This is why, at the beginning of this year, the President of the Chamber, the socialist Francina Armengol, proposed increasing the recognition of women who passed through the institution with the appointment of four tondos in the Palace.
This collection of circular portraits, dedicated to important politicians, mostly from the 19th century, was expanded in 2011 when, under the presidency of the socialist José Bono, those of the President of the Second Republic were installed. Manuel Azana and the first head of the executive after the dictatorship, Adolfo Suárez.
Succession of propositions
After Armengol’s proposal, the three groups present in the Congress Council – PP, PSOE and Sumar – made their proposals. The PSOE and Sumar agreed to propose the deputies of the Second Republic Clara Campoamor and Victoria Kent.
In addition, the PSOE proposed three socialists for the constituent legislature: Carmen Garcia Bloise (with seat between 1977 and 1994), Carlota Bustelo (first director of the Women’s Institute) and the educator and PSC parliamentarian Marta Ángela Mata Garriga.
Sumar, with Campoamor and Kent, spoke of the “Pasionaria” and the anarchist Federica Monstseny, leader of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT), the first woman to head a ministry in Spain, that of Health and Social Assistance . which he occupied between November 1936 and May 1937, under the government of the socialist Francisco Largo Caballero, already in the middle of the civil war and after Franco’s coup d’état. But as she was not an MP, she ended up leaving the list.
And the PP, for its part, opted for Soledad Becerril, prime minister of this democratic stage, when she occupied the portfolio of Culture in the government of Adolfo Suárez, then first Ombudsman and third vice-president of Congress between 2000 and 2004; Loyola de Palacio – minister, senator and deputy and also vice-president and European commissioner -; Nona Inés Vilariño, UCD deputy from La Coruña in the constituent and first legislature and María Victoria Fernández España, first woman to hold a position in the Congressional Council, of which she was the third vice-president of the constituent legislature and held this seat until 1986.
Prioritize the chronological criterion
As Europa Press informed parliamentary sources, before the summer, the three members of the Council responsible for agreeing on the names of the new tondos – Isaura Leal (PSOE), Marta González (PP) and Ester Gil de Reboleño (Sumar) – reached an agreement in principle to apply a chronological criterion and that the first winners were Campoamor, Kent and Margarita Nelken.
Campoamor, representative of the Radical Party, already has a bust in one of the offices next to the room, where her table and office objects are also on display. His opponent in the fight for universal suffrage, Victoria Kent, was a deputy for the Radical-Socialist Republican Party (PRRS) then for the Republican Left (IR) of Manuel Azaña.
She was also responsible for prisons in the first government of Alcalá Zamora, she was in favor of the recognition of women’s right to vote, but later. He argued that letting them vote at that time was a danger for the Republic, as he feared they would be influenced by their husbands and priests and vote to the right. This tondo would be his first recognition in Congress.
For her part, Margarita Nelken – a caricature of which is already exhibited in the Chamber with those of other literary and journalistic deputies – was the only woman to obtain a deputy certificate in 1931, 1933 and 1936. It was in the PSOE, although that once the war started, he moved to the PCE, from which he would eventually be expelled.
But despite this agreement concluded before the summer, Sumar will insist that “Pasionaria” play in one of these tondos. In addition to being a communist leader during the civil war, Ibárruri was secretary general of the party in exile, between 1942 and 1960. From Sumar, above all, they maintain that the Basque politician was elected deputy of Asturias in February 1936 and already in After the transition, he returned to Congress for the same constituency in 1977 with the first free elections after the death of Franco.
And, to try to obtain the approval of the PP, the plurinational group will propose that another of the tondos be for Loyola de Palacio which, in addition to holding the portfolio of Agriculture with José María Aznar, had a seat in the Congress between 1989 and 1999., and was senator, MEP, European commissioner and became the first Spaniard to hold a vice-presidency in the European Commission.
