A Spanish lawmaker is facing calls to resign after blaming Spain’s $1 trillion deficit on “subsidies offered to homosexuals” by the previous socialist government.

The Local reports that Popular Party senator Luz Elena Sanín told journalists that Spain’s ruling conservative party had increased its public spending due to “the debts” caused by “subsidies for (government organizations) and homosexuals.”

Sanín said former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and the country’s opposition Socialists had forced the country’s debt to surpass a record €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion USD) with “his favors”.

The Colombian-born lawmaker, now a Spanish national, added that her party had been forced to further aggravate the country’s economic crisis when coming to power in order to pay back the debt from Zapatero’s subsidies for the LGBT community.

“Otherwise we wouldn’t have this gaping economic hole,” Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported her as saying during a press conference held to sing the praises of her party’s economic model.

LGBT groups and members of Spain’s Socialist party have described Sanín’s remarks as a “breeding ground for homophobia.”