Why doesn't the left talk about 'manadas' anymore?

Feminism and environmentalism have been the two main pillars on which the left has based its growth in recent decades. In Spain and Catalonia, radical feminism has been the main banner of that woke left. However, they have always tried to ensure that the defense of women's rights and safety would not break the patterns of their multicultural model.

Official data linking the increase in crime to immigration cause a great deal of discomfort for the left. This has led the left to follow a new maxim: The defense of women can't be used to fuel racism and the far right.

This explains their change regarding gang rapes, which have gone from being the symbol of the fight against machismo to an uncomfortable topic that should be hidden. According to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior, 43.3% of gangs are made up of foreigners. Among them, Moroccans are the most numerous (9.5%), followed by Romanians and Ecuadorians.

‘Gangs’: From noise to absolute silence

The case of La Manada de San Fermines (2016) helped the new left consolidate its rise based on radical feminism. In fact, that case, whose sentence was handed down in 2019, coincided with the rise of Podemos to the vice presidency of the government.

La Manada de Sevilla served to raise awareness about the rise of rape culture and to raise awareness about the defense of women against machismo. That gang offered the perfect stereotypes to support the narrative. The problem arose when gang rapes began to multiply with foreigners as the main actors.

The most striking thing is that while gang rapes have increased in recent years, progressive feminism has gone from noise to absolute silence. The clearest example is in Catalonia. Under the "most feminist Ministry of Equality in history," led by Tània Verge (ERC), all kinds of assaults have been hidden and even whitewashed.

The gangs of Manresa and Sabadell have been some examples. However, the most flagrant case was the sexual assault of a minor by a gang of foreigners in the Màgic de Badalona. The minister said that they had to "understand" these minors and "protect them."

Feminists yes, racists no

The mechanism is always the same, when a case doesn't fit the official narrative, it must be silenced. La Manada de Sevilla was a symbol of the new feminism because it offered the perfect stereotypes: young Spanish men and machistas protected by the political, media, and judicial right.

The same thing happens with the cases of Dani Alves or Luis Rubiales, which, in addition to machismo, have the added element of power. When the rapists are foreigners, the case is silenced. Or even worse, their history is used to justify it with vulnerability.

This is what happened, for example, with the Bolivian who raped and almost killed a minor in Igualada. Then-minister Tània Verge did not even mention the case despite having echoed those of Dani Alves and Luis Rubiales. Meanwhile, Catalan media such as TV3 focused on the history of abuse to empathize with the monster.

Reality ends up prevailing over the narrative, and the data from the Ministry of the Interior show a problem that must be addressed. Behind gang rapes, there are many factors, among which the high presence of foreigners can't be ignored.