In a 267-114 vote, members of the Confraternity (Brotherhood) of the Purest Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ voted to retain male-only membership. Since the fifteenth century, the confraternity has organized Holy Week processions in Sagunto, a Spanish city of 73,000.
Stating that “Holy Week must be egalitarian,” Ana Redondo García, Spain’s minister of equality, vowed to take action against the confraternity.
In 2024, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that a confraternity with male-only membership in another Spanish town violated women’s constitutional rights, including the right to free association. That ruling is under appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.