Sexism in politics addressed by PACE president should be set against issue of protecting family values - Volodin
MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) - European parliamentarians should take into account the stance of their Russian counterparts who support traditional values, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.
"I had a meeting with the PACE president today. The main issue that she wants to discuss is sexism in politics," Volodin said at a plenary meeting of the State Duma on Tuesday.
While discussing this issue, it would probably be right to begin talks by giving an example which outlines "relations between deputies in the morning that are so warm that probably one just cannot speak of sexism in politics," he said.
Men and women as members of parliament greet each other cordially in the session hall and exchange friendly gestures, Volodin said at the beginning of the parliamentary meeting.
He said he might cite the example in talks with President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Liliane Maury Pasquier that "the male lawmakers paid more attention to women, and not to men in the European parliament."
Women were granted political rights in Russia in 1918, while, for instance, in Switzerland that happened much later, somewhere in the 1960s or the 1970s, Volodin said.
"We have family values. We should not abandon our values here, on the contrary, we should protect them and, perhaps, put representatives of European countries right," he said.
"It is right to follow your own way," Volodin said.
"We shouldn't adapt ourselves to [their values]. Family, values, mother, and woman, this is what sets us apart from them. This is, if you will, our identity, they should take it into consideration and reconcile themselves with it, but that way we'll lose [our identity]," he said.