Animal-rights party says ‘no’ to Podemos alliance

PACMA president Silvia Barquero. Photo: EFE via Público
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• PACMA says Podemos poor record on animal rights make accord impossible
• Pablo Iglesias criticized for refusing to take on bullfighting in election platform

Spain’s Partido Animalista (PACMA) animal-rights party has spurned an offer by Podemos to join a united-left electoral alliance with Izquierda Unida (IU) and other parties in upcoming 26th June elections (26-J), saying it will not “sell out its principles” by joining with Podemos, which it criticized for having not taken stances against bullfighting, cruelty to animals in shelters or the brutal treatment of hunting dogs in municipalities, provinces and regions where it governs.

Denying reports in Spanish news media that PACMA was in talks with Podemos toward joining a united-left electoral alliance, the party referenced Podemos in a statement in which it said “it is impossible to form any kind of electoral accord with parties that have not even bothered to demand an end to bullfighting, the principle example of mistreatment of animals in our country.”

The party also criticized Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias directly for having announced that he would not seek to have the prohibition of bullfighting included in the Podemos election platform and said PACMA activists are proceeding to collect the 45,000 signatures needed to again field candidates in the general election on 26-J. The party won 220,369 votes in Congressional election and more than a million votes for its Senate candidates in the Dec. 20th general election.

► Read More in Spanish at 20minutos and Público …

► Read Spanish-language PACMA press release, here …

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