Senior Spanish government figures, including the prime minister, have condemned the behaviour of a group of male university students who were filmed cheering and howling after one of them hurled threatening, obscene and sexist insults at female students in a neighbouring block.
Footage of the incident, shot on Sunday at the Elías Ahuja hall of residence in Madrid, shows one student calling women in the Santa Mónica hall “whores” and “fucking nymphomaniacs” and telling them to come “out of your dens like rabbits”.
His words are met with roars and cheers from others in the block, who throw open their window shutters in unison to join in.
Authorities at the hall, which is run by the Augustinians and attached to the campus of Madrid’s Complutense University, said they “emphatically condemned” the “incomprehensible and socially unacceptable” behaviour. They said those involved could face expulsion.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said actions that “generate hate and threaten women” would not be tolerated, adding: “It’s especially painful to see the protagonists are young people.”
The country’s equality minister, Irene Montero, said the episode was “the clearest proof” of the need for education on sexual consent. “That way all the boys and girls and teenagers in our country will learn that treating people right is right, and that treating them wrong is wrong,” she said. “That way they’ll learn about the culture of consent so that we can stop reinforcing the culture of rape and sexual terror that makes women into sexual objects.”
Her words were echoed by Spain’s education minister, Pilar Alegría. “We can’t look the other way,” she said. “We need to keep advancing as an equal society and that’s why education and equality policies are so important. There’s no going backwards in the face of sexism.”
The director of the hall, Manuel García Artiga, said the sentiments expressed in the video “go totally against the values of the hall and are unacceptable and inexplicable”. He told Cadena SER radio that he and a night porter had attempted to stop the chanting but had arrived too late.
García Artiga said the “full force of the hall’s disciplinary rules” would be applied, adding that those involved had been asked to write letters of apology to their neighbours.
A spokesperson for the hall told El País that the authorities had met on Monday to discuss expelling the alleged ringleader. He added that the student in question would first be given an opportunity to explain himself.
