An ultra-conservative Spanish group has used an image of Adolf Hitler in makeup to launch a bus campaign against feminism – branding women’s rights campaigners “feminazis”.

Hazte Oír, which means Make Yourself Heard, are calling on Spain’s conservative political leaders to repeal the 2004 gender violence law and legal protections granted by Spanish regions to the LGBT+ community.

The bus will make its way through several Spanish cities – such as Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Cadiz and Pamplona – until International Women’s Day this Friday when a women’s strike and demonstration have been planned.

The bus includes an image of Hitler, who was responsible for the mass-murder of six million Jews during the Second World War, wearing makeup and the symbol of feminism on his military cap.

“It is not gender violence, it is domestic violence. Gender laws discriminate against men,” reads the slogan on the side of a bus. It is accompanied by the hashtag #StopFeminazis.

International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Show all 17 1 /17 International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Radical political activist Angela Davis speaks at a protest in Raleigh Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Poor pay, 14 hour days and dangerous working conditions led to a strike by around 1400 women and girls at a match factory in Bow, London, 1888. The action was later coined ‘The Matchgirls Strike’ International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Christabel Pankhurst, one of the founders of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a leading member of the suffragette movement, addresses a crowd in Trafalgar Square in a speech in which she invites the crowd to ‘rush’ the House of Commons, 11 October 1908. Christabel Pankhurst and her mother Emmeline, alongside Flora Drummond, were arrested two days later charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace. The rush on parliament went ahead without them however, with over 60,000 suffragettes attempting to break through the 5000 strong police cordon protecting parliament. Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Suffragette Emily Davison is hit and killed by King George V's horse Anmer during the 1913 Epsom Derby. She fell underneath the galloping horse after leaping from the crowd and trying to grab hold of the reins Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Striking women machinists from the Ford plant at Dagenham protest outside negotiations over their wages, 1968. The women went on strike over their lack of pay in relation to their male colleagues. The action helped to trigger the Equal Pay Act 1970 Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history The women's liberation movement march in Washington, August 1970 Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protestors disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition. Original caption: ‘The Miss World contest causes a feminist storm as demonstrators invade the Royal Albert Hall where the contest was held. Protestors fired ink at spectators and let off stink bombs in scenes resembling a school assembly. The unruly ladies were eventually expelled from the hall by security guards and policemen’ Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Somalians demonstrating in Mogadishu for the release of Angela Davis, March 1972, a Black Panther activist imprisoned in the USA after being charged with first degree murder. Davis was later acquitted Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Jayaben Desai, one of the mostly British-Asian women out on strike at the Grunwick factory in 1977, pictured on the picket line Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women protest against nuclear weapons outside of RAF base Greenham Common, 1982 Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Indian protestors hold candles during a rally in New Delhi in December 2012, after the death of a student who was gang raped on a bus in the Indian capital Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history A feminist group Sisters Uncut protesting against cuts to domestic violence refuges occupy the red carpet during a protest at the Suffragette premiere, 7 October 2015 Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history People gather for the Women’s March in Washington, January 2017 Reuters International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protesters walk during the Women’s March on Washington, with the US Capitol in the background, in January, 2017. Donald Trump was sworn in as president the previous day Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women march as part of the gender equality protest in London, March 2017 AFP/Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Demonstrators march through during the March4Women event, 4 March 2018, London Getty International Women’s Day: groundbreaking figures from history Placards are displayed during the March4Women, 4 March 2018, London Getty

The Catholic group called on Spain’s conservative political leaders – Pablo Casado from the Popular Party (PP), Albert Rivera from Ciudadanos (Citizens) and Santiago Abascal from the far-right party Vox – to commit to repealing Spain’s gender violence laws for “violating equality”.

The laws, including a €1 billion, five-year programme passed in 2017, implemented measures to protect victims of domestic violence such as processing suspected cases within 72 hours and providing legal, psychological and social help to victims.

“There is a real problem with violence but some, for ideological reasons, only want to talk about ‘gender violence’ to discriminate against men, children, older people and teenagers who suffer mistreatment and attacks,” Hazte Oir spokesperson Luis Losada said.

Hazte Oir had its status as a public service group stripped by the Interior Ministry this year because it felt the organisation’s campaigns went against the public interest.

The group made headlines in 2017 when it launched an aggressive, discriminatory bus campaign against the transgender community.

“Boys have penises, girls have vulvas. Don’t let them fool you. If you’re born a man, you’re a man. If you’re a woman, you will continue to be so,” read a message plastered on the bus.

The group’s new campaign comes as Spain sees a lurch to the far right. The country was left stunned in December last year after Vox claimed 12 seats in Andalusia in a regional vote – the far-right’s first electoral success since the country’s return to democracy in the late 1970s.

The anti-immigrant, nationalist party has never held any seats in any of the country’s legislative bodies since it was founded five years ago, but it now holds the key to forming a right-wing government in the country’s most populated region.

The Socialist Party, which has governed in the region since the death of military dictator Francisco Franco, lost its majority in Andalusia’s 109-seat regional assembly.

Since its surprise gains, Vox has used its position to request the names of government workers who deal with gender violence.

The mounting popularity of Vox has led the PP to take a tougher attitude to topics like gender violence and immigration to curb voters casting a vote for Vox in the forthcoming general election at the end of April.

Spain’s gender violence laws recently grabbed headlines when Vox said it would only support a coalition if its right-wing partners agreed to repeal the laws.

Between 2008 and 2015, 58 men were killed by their partners or ex-partners in Spain, compared to 488 women, a study by Spain’s highest judicial body, the CGPJ, shows.

Figures show 2017 was the worst year on record for violence against women – 158,217 women were subjected to domestic violence, an 18 per cent year-on-year rise. Some 47 women were killed by their partners in 2018.

Women in Spain marked International Women’s Day last year by deserting paid and unpaid labour to take part in the country’s first nationwide “feminist strike”. The 24-hour walkout, aimed at drawing attention to domestic violence, sexual discrimination and the gender pay gap, substantially disrupted the country’s train network.