The leader of the Galician Socialists took two days to give explanations about the alleged case of sexual harassment that affects someone who was one of his closest collaborators and he did it to rectify what his team has affirmed so far. José Ramón Gómez Besteiro now admits that he was aware of the accusations against José Tomé, his baron in Lugo. He admits that a third person, and not the victim, spoke to them about it last October and that he asked Tomé for explanations but he denied the facts. They were also aware of their number two to the PSdeG, Lara Méndez, and the party’s organizational secretary in Lugo, Pilar García. Besteiro considers that he acted correctly and that the party “did what was in its power”. At the time he made these statements, it appeared that his Secretary for Equality, Silvia Fraga, had just submitted her resignation.
Besteiro claims to have asked this third person “to encourage the victim to come forward”. She states that she also put the person who relayed the accusations to her with Méndez and García and that the two met with her four times between October and November. Later, according to the story presented by the socialist leader this Friday during a press conference, Tomé was again asked for explanations, and he once again denied everything. In the TV show Code 10 Last Tuesday, he adds, he learned that there was a complaint against Tomé in the internal canal of Ferraz. Besteiro defends his handling of the case and repeated several times during his appearance that the Galician PSOE acted with “immediacy and force”: “My response, the party’s response, was clear: take care of this person, listen to him and encourage the victim to denounce.
Until this Friday afternoon, the PSdeG leadership categorically denied having any knowledge of the serious accusations concerning Tomé’s “sexist behavior” towards women in the party. Besteiro now claims that he could not bring these accusations to court because in cases of sexual harassment, the “complaint of the injured person” is necessary, unlike in sexist violence. And he assumes that as soon as he learned that there was a complaint in the internal channel of the PSOE, he acted “within hours” and “no matter who fell”. “We apologize because these behaviors cannot happen in our party,” Besteiro said.
Besteiro’s corrections and explanations on its management come two days after the outbreak of the crisis and it will be necessary to see what internal consequences they will have. The fall of Tomé also compromises the electoral future of Galician socialism. The one who until 48 hours ago was one of the closest collaborators of the leader of the PSdeG has taken refuge in the municipal council of Monforte and in his seat on the provincial council of Lugo. The mayor of this town of 18,500 inhabitants refuses to hand over the councilor and deputy certificate. His decision opens a fissure within the provincial government led by the PSOE and BNG coalition.
Without Tomé, the left is tied in seats with the PP in this institution, so everything the socialists and nationalists do during the rest of the mandate until the municipal elections of 2027 will depend on him as a non-registered deputy. The leader of the nationalists, Ana Pontón, called on Friday Tomé to hand in his provincial deputy certificate “out of ethics and respect” for the institution and “for what politics should be.”
Monforte is also an important place for the PSOE and the BNG to be able to revalidate the government in the Provincial Council of Lugo. There, Tomé enjoys an absolute majority and by joining all his councilors to the non-registered group to remain in charge, he made the PSdeG disappear from the municipal council of the second largest municipality in the province.
This Friday was an eventful day at the Provincial Council of Lugo. Tomé has formalized his resignation from the presidency, but it will not be effective until December 30 when it will be approved in an ordinary plenary session. Previously, he chaired the board of directors as if nothing had happened and the three members of the BNG, headed by Vice President Efrén Castro, decided to cancel the meeting. Castro demanded that an extraordinary plenary session be called so that Tomé would not be in office for 18 days and leave the presidential office early: “Let these absurdities no longer continue.” A socialist joined the BNG team, the mayor of Castroverde, Xosé María Arias.
The PP and its “double standard”
The PP demands explanations from the Socialists on their handling of the sexual harassment complaint against Tomé. Before Besteiro’s revelations, Diego Calvo, advise of the presidency and leader of the party in La Coruña, criticized the possibility that Besteiro and his number two at PSdeG, Lara Méndez learned of the accusations from the mouths of those involved and avoided taking action against Tomé. The popular criticism comes after the former advisor de Mar Alfonso Villares remained in his post for four months after being reported for sexual assault. When he finally resigned from office last June, he did so to applause and accolades from his party colleagues.
For Pontón, the Galician PP applies a “double standard”. The national spokesperson for the BNG criticizes the “terrible message” that Alfonso Rueda’s government has sent to women victims of gender-based violence by dismissing Villares “as if he were a hero.” Hours before Besteiro admitted she was aware of the accusations, the nationalist urged the Socialists to clarify whether the leadership knew Tomé had been singled out by women in the party and admitted that, if confirmed, it would be “very serious”.
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