Pedro Sánchez at the Democracy 2025 Festival in Chile: "The 21st century will be women's century or it will not be"

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, during the meeting with representatives of civil society in Chile. (Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, together with the presidents of Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia, took part in a meeting with civil society as part of the Democracy 2025 Festival, which is being held in Santiago de Chile between Sunday 20 July and Tuesday 22 July. At the event, in which the leaders listened to the proposals of the participating organisations on disinformation, democracy and inequality, the President of the Government addressed those present to call for the union of progressive forces around shared projects, stressing that "the main common cause we are going to see in the 21st century is that this time will belong to women or it will not".

Pedro Sánchez listed the main advances in this regard in Spain in recent years, such as the law to combat the pay gap, the pact against gender-based violence and the equalisation of paternity and maternity leave, assuring: "When the right and the far right say that feminism is divisive and confrontational, I reply: most men are with the cause of women".

Meeting with intellectuals

The President of the Government, together with the other four presidents, also took part in a lunch with intellectuals and think tanks, in which they discussed in greater depth the debates on democracy they held at the leaders' meeting on Monday morning. Among the participants were sociologist and political scientist Marcela Ríos, philosopher Susan Neiman, economist Joseph Stiglitz and thinker Daniel Innerarity.