Pedro Sanchez has offered his condolences to two separate families after a five-year-old girl and a 76-year-old woman were killed by male family members within days of each other.
The child was killed in Murcia on April 1 by her former stepfather, who fatally drugged her while driving her to his home during what she thought was a routine visit, it is alleged.
The elderly woman, meanwhile, was allegedly murdered April 6 in O Bolo (Ourense), by her 72-year-old partner. There were no previous reports of domestic violence in either case.
The number of women killed by male relatives or loved ones in Spain so far this year now stands at seven. The count since records began in 2003 is 1,301, according to the Government Department Against Gender-based Violence.
Sanchez said on X today: ‘My condolences to the family and loved ones of the woman murdered in Ourense due to gender-based violence.
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‘My strongest condemnation of sexist terrorism. Ending this structural violence is incumbent on us all.’
He wrote on April 3: ‘A girl has been murdered in Murcia due to vicarious violence, the cruelest expression of machismo. An unbearable horror.
‘There are no words, no consolation, only commitment: we will not stop until this barbarity is put to an end.’
Galicia minister Pedro Blanco said: ‘We are facing a situation of absolute emergency and we will not take a step back from this reality.
‘I ask those who deny it to reconsider, because we are facing gender-based violence and we must do everything we can to make it visible in order to eradicate it.’
The alleged killer of the girl, named only as Jesus, is being held in prison without bail ahead of his next court appearance.
The now-waiter was convicted in 2010 and 2014 on domestic violence charges, for which he served a prison sentences of two years and one year respectively.
The 47-year-old is said to have given the daughter of his ex-partner a fatal dose of pills or narcotics, the substance of which have yet to be confirmed.
He did not have any custody or rights to see the girl, but would regularly pick her up and spend time with her as they had a ‘good relationship’, reports La Sexta.
