Is it true that in Spain the minister proposed legalizing pedophilia?

Russian media, citing a video of Spanish Minister for Equality Irene Montero's speech in the lower house of parliament, said that she called for the legalization of pedophilia. We checked to see if Minister Montero really said this.

The statement made by Minister Irene Montero caused a storm of indignation in the Russian press And social networks. "Channel 5“Montero summed up his words this way: “A foreign official, speaking at a meeting of the Congress of Deputies, criticized the ban on pedophilia, and also stated that children have the right to have sex with adult perverts.” "Ren-TV» wrote: “In Spain, the minister called for the legalization of pedophilia.” “Tsargrad” published an article entitled “Spanish shame: Europe is being taught to the dirtiest perversion,” in which it wrote: “If conversations about the “legality and normality of pedophilia” have until now been conducted at the level of individual pseudo-scientific “experts on gender issues,” now this topic is being discussed from the government and parliamentary rostrum.” Some Russian officials also commented on Montero's words. For example, Russian Foreign Ministry Speaker Maria Zakharova said: “The catastrophic nature of this statement is no longer even in the legalization of pedophilia. And the fact is that it is being promoted under the slogan of the fight for children’s rights: if a child has not yet been deprived of his innocence, then this is a gross violation of the rights of minors to self-knowledge.”

On September 21, Spanish Minister Irene Montero held a meeting of the Equality Commission, where she spoke about the work of her ministry. During this meeting, she uttered a phrase about children’s rights, which Maria Zakharova conveyed so (spelling and punctuation preserved): “... all boys, girls, children of indeterminate gender in this country have the right to know their body, and to know that no adult can touch their body, to know that if they don’t want it, it’s a form of violence. They have the right to know that they can love or have sexual relations with whoever they want on the basis of consent.” Zakharova then offered her interpretation of what had been said: “If translated into normal language, the Spanish minister stated that the ban on pedophilia is a form of societal violence against a child.” 

It is unknown where Maria Zakharova got the transcript and translation of Montero’s speech into Russian - before her Telegram post, this translation was not found on the Internet. But if you turn to the original video of the minister’s speech at the meeting, you can see that the translation of the quote given by Zakharova is far from the original.

Moreover, Montero's words were taken out of context. Her statement was only part of a long answer to the representative of the Vox party Lourdes Mendes, in which Montero spoke about women's reproductive rights, particularly the right to abortion. If you look answer in its entirety, it becomes clear that Montero was not referring to children of all ages, but to “young people aged 16 and 17”, whom she mentioned several times in her long answer before and after the sensational fragment.

In Spain, as in Russia, age of sexual consent comes at 16 years old. In accordance with national legislation and the Criminal Code, it is prohibited to commit sexual acts with persons under 16 years of age, regardless of their consent or disagreement. And coming of age in Spain comes at 18 years old. That is, 16- and 17-year-olds are still considered children, but have the legal right to give informed consent to sexual activity with another person (or, in Montero's words, “whoever they want”). It was these children that the minister was talking about, as you can verify by listening to her entire answer. And her subsequent statements about voluntary abortion also concerned only girls 16 and 17 years old.

It is also worth considering that pedophilia, which, according to Russian media, they decided to legalize in Spain, is defined from a medical point of view as the sexual interest of a person over 16 years old in prepubescent children or attempts to engage in sexual intercourse with prepubescent children. In this case, the person must be at least five years older than the object of attraction. There is no general definition of prepubertal age, but many authorities sources the age of 12–13 years is indicated as its upper limit. In the common understanding, pedophiles also refer to those who are attracted to pubescent adolescents aged 13-16, although scientists define such people as hebephiles and ephebophiles. In other words, relationships with 16- and 17-year-old boys and girls that Montero spoke about do not fall under the scientific definition of pedophilia or hebephilia and only in certain cases can be considered manifestations of ephebophilia.

Thus, Russian media and officials distorted the essence of the statement of Spanish Minister Irene Montero: first by taking it out of context, and then by incorrectly translating it into Russian. Montero did not call for the legalization of pedophilia and generally spoke only about teenagers who have reached the age of sexual consent - 16 years.

Cover image: Minister for Equality Irene Montero (Source: YouTube)

Not true

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