Spain eyes repeal of blasphemy law amid debate over free expression
People dance next to a poster depicting the body of Jesus Christ within a butcher's diagram, illustrating different cuts of meat, which was removed by Basque police from a temporary bar following a complaint of blasphemy by the diocese of Bilbao, but later appeared in different bars, according to local media, at the Aste Nagusia fiestas in Bilbao, Spain, August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent West TEMPLATE OUT/File Photo
Spain's Socialist-led
government said it had proposed legislation to stop religious groups seeking to
prosecute people for blasphemy, amid a debate about how to balance freedom of
speech against religious rights.
Patxi Lopez, the
Socialist Party's parliamentary spokesperson, said on Friday that the bill
would repeal a law that imposes fines on people who mock religious beliefs.
He said the law
"rarely achieves convictions and yet it is constantly used by extremist
and fundamentalist organisations to persecute artists, activists (and) elected
representatives, subjecting them to costly criminal proceedings".
About a third of
European countries still had blasphemy laws in 2019, according to the Pew
Research Centre, and in recent decades the issue has transcended religion to
become a part of identity politics, said David Nash, a history professor and
blasphemy expert at the University of Oxford.
The bill follows a
lawsuit brought by Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers) against comedienne
Lalachus after she, in a state television appearance during New Year's Eve
celebrations, brandished an image of Jesus on which the head of the cow mascot
for a popular TV program had been superimposed.
Other prosecutions
have sought to punish a woman who paraded through the streets with a giant
vagina maquette and a politician who stripped down to her bra to protest
against the presence of a chapel in a public university.
Lopez said the bill
would also prohibit lawsuits based exclusively on evidence from news clippings
and ban political parties or associated groups from launching or joining
lawsuits.
The conservative
opposition said this was an attempt to prevent private prosecutions that have
ensnared Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his family in the past year.
Sanchez threatened
to step down after his wife Begona Gomez was accused by anti-graft
campaigners Manos Limpias (Clean Hands) in a lawsuit of using her profile to
influence her business dealings. She has denied the accusations.
Most blasphemy cases in Spain are thrown out, although in 2018 a man was sentenced to six months in prison for interrupting a mass by shouting slogans supporting abortion.
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