Misguided laws” “

“Famiphobia” means hatred and contempt for the family. The term is used by EDUARDO HERTFELDER DI ALDECOA , president of the Institute of Family Policy (www.ipfe.org), to define the current tendency that seems to have gained a firm foothold in Spain. In this interview granted to SIR he explains that “support for the family by so many people and institutions throughout the world demonstrates not only solidarity, but the consciousness that Spain, with its approval of express divorce and gay marriages, is a test-bed for what could happen in other countries”.  Did you expect the massive reaction of Spanish families and the international support they have received?  “I expected a major reaction, because there were many objective and powerful reasons to protest and the awareness of families had been raised. The international support was great and marked the ‘before’ and ‘after’ in the national and international family movement. Spanish families demonstrated in order to spell out to the government that they don’t want measures that subvert the family. The international support was great because people abroad know that Spain is a test-bed for implementing similar measures in other countries. But 18 June – when Spanish families took to the streets to protest – was a historic moment that marks the beginning of a new family movement”.   What are the “famiphobic” laws that your institute speaks of?  “‘Famiphobia’ is a term that describes the hatred, rejection and contempt for the family as an institution and the social functions it performs.  The ideological prejudice that does not believe in the family, and that considers it a school of social inequalities and the cause of the oppression of its members, especially women, has imposed itself on the current Spanish government. Acting “coherently” on the basis of these premises, the Spanish Socialist Worker Party (PSOE, now in government) is adopting a policy that, apart from ignoring the family in terms of family benefits, is clearly implementing laws contrary to it. The two laws for “speeding up” divorces and authorizing homosexual marriages are clearly misguided and regressive, both from a legal, and from a psychological, psychiatric, sociological and familial point of view, because they go against the interests of the family and childhood and have been approved without taking account of the will of the people or of the experts”. What does your Institute of Family Policy propose?  “Our mission, as an independent civil body, is the promotion and defence of the family as an institution and of its members, by raising the awareness of society and the public authorities. It also promotes proposals and projects and the coordination between family institutions, agencies and associations at the national and international level. Irrespective of current political trends, the Institute of Family Policy wishes to propose alternative solutions to the legislators and to the various administrations to help solve the problems concerning the family. Dialogue can be more or less fluid – that will depend, in good measure, on how sensitive to the concerns of the family our interlocutor is -, but what is clear is that we have much to contribute and that our rulers have a need for and must be able to count on the participation of the ‘family association movement’ to understand, at first hand, the real needs of Spanish families. We only ask that the dialogue the government calls for also includes the family”.