Elena Etxegoyen Gaztelumendi

Lawyer. Ex senator of EAJ-PNV.

I begin by emphasizing the naturalness in the introduction by Izaskun Landaida -Director of Emakunde- in turn her salutations and presentation of the speakers, with the absence of triumphalism in her message and the loudness of the chosen language, Euskera. My first consideration: Euskera, the native language of the Basque people as a vehicle of communication, understanding … Europe and its issues are also transmitted through languages that some might call minority languages, but simply put, they are ours. Ez al dakizu euskera dela euskaldun egiten gaittuena…

Attention should be drawn to the high degree of knowledge concerning equality policies evidenced by the three speakers [Marina Calloni, Kristin Tran and Alexandra Bÿrod] and the value created by their differentiated and individualized experiences, which most enriched the debate. In reality there is a common ground that we must battle. In a first instance, tackling pro-equality measures, actions and policies between men and women, including the need for Equality Acts- understood not as an end in itself but as an instrument. I think we should recognize that the removal of barriers starts from considering the reality of each particular environment, or else any effort from the political sector, as laborious as it may be, becomes useless, irrelevant and ineffective. It ends in rendering invisible, overlapped by tedious parliamentary debates, demonstrations and mechanical international days of recognition. Ergo, second consideration: we should not render equality to a more politically correct version of egalitarianism, the space in which the great truths of offices and political parliaments matter more than the nuances that identify a concrete reality. Because the indisputable and the subjective become essential in realizing that there is none other than real, lasting and standardized equality, every day, everywhere and every place. But there are no days, areas or places that are the same, each obeys its own circumstances and demands its own pace, the same but differentiated attention, the same dedication but not necessarily the same answer.

What connects with other “differential facts” arising ex novo and that multiply with the rise of the internet and social networks capable of generating all kinds of synergies: the same can contribute to the cause of equality or act against it. Third consideration: permanent alert for virulent attacks against Human Rights that are already a reality in the ways of online communication and social networking. A call to notice and to professionalism to combat the harmful potential of these new tools and to encourage its immense possibilities.

And I stress, to conclude, which at one point in the debate was as though one rubbed salt on the wound so as to heal it: A feminist party is an instrument for equality, but is not a party for or by women, because equality is not either for or by women. Last consideration: being a feminist, or proclaiming oneself as a feminist, is not a political statement; it is an attitude. Hence feminist movements or manifestly feminist political parties cannot per se grant naturalization to its activists or deny the rest that condition. And let feminist be claimed, to the fullest of the letter and with complete legitimacy, with nonpartisan membership.

“I’m a feminist; I would be ashamed to not be because I believe that every woman who thinks must feel the desire to collaborate, as a person, in the whole work of human culture.”- María de Maeztu.

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