CUP Councillor Denounces Sexist Harassment from the Far-Right

CUP Councillor Denounces Wave of Sens and Racist Insults Over Moià Slaughterhouse Video

A councillor from the CUP in Moià who criticized the expansion of the local slaughterhouse has ignited a controversy that has little to do with municipal infrastructure. The protagonist, Lakshmi Roset Sala, has denounced receiving hundreds of sens and racist messages attacking her physical appearance and her origins. The paradox: many of these messages came from sectors that claim to defend Spanish identity but did not hesitate to resort to the most crude stereotypes.

What peine with the CUP councillor in Moià

Roset Sala, born in 1995, is a councilor for the CUP in the Barcelona municipality. A few days ago, she shared a video opposing the expansion of the local slaughterhouse. According to the newspaper ARA, the video accumulated “hundreds of sens messages” focused on her physical appearance and political affiliation. The councillor herself stood firm and publicly denounced the situation, emphasizing that the harassment came not from the political debate but from explicit machismo.

The Content of the Insults: Sens and Racism

The comments arrived quickly. Instead of refuting her arguments about the slaughterhouse, many users chose to mock her name, “Lakshmi,” which suggests Indian origins, and her antiestéticatures. She was described with derogatory epithets that mixed sensual objectification with xenophobia. The language used attempted to reduce her to an object and an ethnic stereotype—a combination that has been repeated in multiple cases of harassment against female politicians. The ease with which the public debate shifts to personal attack is a worrying symptom of the trajectory of political discourse in Spain.

The Context of Harassment Against Women in Politics

The Moià case is not isolated. Women in politics, especially those in left-wing or independence movements, face disproportionate harassment on social media. The CUP, in particular, has been the target of smear campaigns. The paradox is that these attacks come from sectors that condemn feminism but practice the most entrenched machismo. The irony becomes even clearer when observing that Roset Sala was defending a specific municipal position, not engaging in high-level politics. The fact that a councillor cannot express her opinion without receiving insults about her body and origins raises questions about the state of digital democracy.

The councillor has shown that standing up to it is an option, but increasingly, female politicians carry a personal cost that should not be part of their salary. How long will political polarization justify this type of discourse? The debate about the Moià slaughterhouse has been buried under a mountain of disdain, and with it, the possibility of discussing public matters without the individual becoming the target.