EUROPE/SPAIN - Double standards: path denied to June 18 Pro-Family demonstration granted to Gay Pride parade

Madrid (Fides Service) - Five days before the demonstration which, with the slogan “The Family is Important”, has called Spanish Catholics into the streets on 18 June to protest against the government’s anti-family policies, the organisers Spanish Family Forum (FEF) denounce that the government delegation in Madrid continues to put up obstacles “to boycott a civil and democratic initiative”. In a statement sent to Fides FEF says that permission formerly granted to march between Cibeles and Colón along the central Castellana street has now been withdrawn on the grounds that it would paralyse the city. Another path has been substituted but the organisers say it will not be sufficient to hold all the participants expected to come from all over the country. FEF also denounces that the path denied to the Family demonstration has been instead conceded for a Gay Pride parade to take place a few weeks later and which is not expected to draw as many people as the June 18 Pro-Family march.
Five days before the event the question of parking for 600 buses from all over the country has still to be settled with the authorities. The organisers also fear that the figures will be distorted “as it happened scandalously with regard to demonstrations in favour of the victims of terrorism”. “We are trying to make their work easier” the FEF organisers say, but the delegation of the government “is trying to dim the success of a demonstration which will reveal the government’s total refusal to dialogue”. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 14/6/2005, righe 21, parole 282)