They denounce the lack of religious freedom of parties before European elections

“Religious Freedom is the great forgotten part of the parties that are running for the elections to the European Parliament on June 9,” according to María García, president of the Observatory for Religious Freedom and Conscience (OLRC) in a statement.

According to a analysis of the programs Of the parties that participate in the community elections held by this independent civil entity, at least 5 political formations or coalitions “do not present any measure that takes religious freedom into account.”

These are the Popular Party, Vox, Ciudadanos and the electoral alliances Ahora Repúblicas, formed by ERC, Bildu and BNG, and the Coalition for a Solidarity Europe, which brings together the Canarian Coalition, PNV and Geroa Bai.

The report also shows that, in the case of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), religious freedom is mentioned “in a too generic way” and, consequently, “it does not highlight specific measures that represent progress for this fundamental right.” .

The OLRC also remembers that the PSOE is among the formations that most attack religious freedom, as stated in its annual report for the year 2022. Podemos also appeared in this ranking, in whose electoral program for the Parliamentary elections The European Union calls for the adoption of a European directive against anti-Semitic and Islamophobic speech, “ignoring Christianophobia,” underlines the OLRC.

In fact, experts add, anti-Christian hate crimes are more numerous in Spain and in all the European Unionaccording to data from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Something similar happens with the Catalan secessionist formation Junts in the opinion of the OLRC, which values ​​its proposals in favor of dialogue and against fundamentalism. “However, it forgets, like Podemos, about Christianophobia,” they point out, while the Observatory of Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC), based in Vienna, reported 748 hate crimes against Christians in 30 European countries.

The OLRC analysis also highlights that Sumar, a group led by the current second vice president of the Government of Spain and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, “wants to eliminate the subject of Religion, demonstrating, once again, its belligerent secularism for which “Tries to eliminate beliefs from public life.”

The president of the OLRC asks political parties to “respect and guarantee the fundamental right to religious freedom, both from an individual and collective point of view”, not to promote “anti-religious hatred and belligerent secularism” and to enforce the symbols religious beliefs and the freedom to manifest religious beliefs in public.