Madrid (EFE).- Under the motto “For our rights, for our lives: with Pride” the Pride 2023 demonstration began at 7:12 p.m., which will tour the center of Madrid this Saturday with two ministers of the coalition government in the header, invited as thanks for the approval of the state LGTBI+ Law.
These are the Minister of Labor and Social Economy and Second Vice President, Yolanda Díaz, and the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, who accompany the conveners on the first banner, including the president of the LGTBI+ State Federation ( FELGTB), Uge Sangil, the president of COGAM, Ronny de la Cruz, or activists such as the representative of Más Madrid, Carla Antonelli.
There is also a second headline banner, carried by representatives of civil society organizations, to demand a State pact against hate speech.
Several Executive personalities present at Pride 2023
The organizers plan to gather more than a million people in this demonstration, the central act of Pride 2023, which is also attended by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the Minister of Science, Diana Morant, the Minister of the Presidency of Spain, Félix Bolaños, the Ministers of Equality, Irene Montero, the person in charge of Social Rights, Ione Belarra or representatives of Más País, including Íñigo Errejón.
Despite the criticism from the LGTBI collective of the pacts signed by the PP with VOX in various communities, which they anticipate will mean a setback in their rights, the popular Carmen Fúnez and Jaime de los Santos have decided to attend the march, in which 46 floats participate and in which a manifesto signed by 111 organizations will be read.
In the middle of the electoral campaign, both the FELGTB and the COGAM have asked citizens to take to the streets this Saturday “to dye them with colors to show those who want to return to black and white that there are many more of us.”
LGTBI associations point out the importance of knowing “our allies” when voting
The president of the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans, Bisexuals, Intersex and more (Felgtbi+), Uge Sangil, highlighted this Saturday the importance of knowing “who our allies are” when voting on 23J.
However, “we also know who is promoting rights against the collective”, stressed Sangil during his speech before the start of the Pride demonstration in the capital of Spain.
In relation to the pacts that PP and Vox are carrying out, he has indicated that the blue of the popular, “has become green”, to which he has added that “we cannot applaud those who deny our rights”.
Likewise, Sangil explained that the Felgtbi+ has promoted a social pact with social organizations, against hate speech in institutions, for which they ask the parties to sign a State pact.
The president of the Collective of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals of Madrid (Cogam), Ronny de la Cruz Carbonell, stressed that “it is the first time that we hold a demonstration in a context of pre-election campaign”.
He added that “it is the first time we have seen how our rights are being threatened in a very clear way in a long time”, so this year “it is important to remember that on June 23 our rights are at stake”.
According to De la Cruz, it is necessary to keep in mind “which are the parties, the allied political forces and which are not.”
This Saturday more than 96 entities demonstrate in Madrid, in addition to 46 floats in the road march, to defend rights, because “in our society we all fit, in that of others we don’t”, Sangil has settled.