Monday’s convening of the Galician National Executive Commission of the PSdeG has the official objective of “monitoring internal activity” and “analyzing the current political context”. But behind these generalities, or euphemisms, lies the shock they cause in the world. … Galician socialism known cases of harassment by PSdeG officials, in particular the six complaints that the president of the Foral Delegation of Lugo and mayor of Monforte de Lemos, José Tomé, has on the table. José Ramón Gómez Besteiro will bring together the executive to close ranks in the face of internal voices that question their leadership.
Among the points of the day that will be discussed within the Executive Commission – in practice, the party leadership – will be the convening of a National Committee, the highest political governing body of the PSdeG between congresses, which meets at least three times a year. In addition to the Executive, among others, party deputies, delegates from municipal assemblies or provincial spokespersons participate in the Committee. Also a representative of the Socialist Youth, who has been demanding for days that the National Committee be convened to deal with this crisis, “stops the noise and gives transparent explanations”.
The handling that Besteiro’s team made of the complaints of half a dozen women against the president of the Provincial Council of Lugo raised light bulbs in the socialist ranks. Important voices from the party, united in particular around a very tough manifesto signed by more than half a thousand activists, including the former presidents of the Xunta Emilio Pérez Touriño and Fernando González Laxe, designate the leadership of the party for not having acted with diligence and transparency in response to complaints against Tomé for harassment.
These critical voices, some of which have great weight within the party, more or less explicitly question Besteiro’s leadership. But none, at least for the moment, openly calls for the resignation of the secretary general, who already told the press on Tuesday that he was not considering resigning: “The one who must resign is the one who harasses.” In this press conference, Besteiro also tried to use the case of workplace harassment in Barbadás, Orense, on the part of the mayor, to try to show agility and transparency in the face of complaints against the PSdeG accusations.
The role of Inés Rey
One of these critical voices is that of the mayor of La Coruña, Inés Rey, promoter with six other socialist councilors of the aforementioned manifesto. Rey is not just anyone in the ranks of the PSdeG, because in a party in which there are few names of possible successors, if necessary, of Besteiro, the mayor of La Coruña is one of the options that is most talked about behind closed doors. Regardless, despite the veiled accusation she made a few days ago against Besteiro, when she said she regretted that “powerful men” in her party had raised their voices in response to complaints of harassment, Inés Rey insists that her future lies in municipal politics. This Wednesday, questioned by the media, she repeated again: “My job is to be mayor of A Coruña, I have no aspirations of any nature outside municipal limits. Abel Caballero also made a statement affirming that the leadership of the PSdeG “was wrong” in the management of the crisis in the case of Tomé, although in his case it is clear that the veteran socialist has no other aspiration than to continue collecting absolute majorities in Vigo.
Critics within the PSdeG point not only to Besteiro, but also to the party’s number two, Lara Méndez, and the PSdeG organizing secretary in Lugo, Pilar García Porto, for their alleged lack of diligence in handling this crisis.
The opposition goes even further and The so-called passivity draws the limits of an “unacceptable silence”. This Wednesday, the spokesperson for the PP Provincial Group, Antonio Ameijide, accused García Porto of having “covered up” the alleged cases of harassment of several women by Tomé. “Silence is not an option when such serious events are at stake,” Ameijide added.
But beyond the internal problems of the PSdeG, which, at least at the regional level, is experiencing its worst moments with only nine deputies in the Chamber, it remains to be seen what will happen. consequences that this crisis could have on the governance of the Provincial Council from Lugo. There, Tomé, although he left the PSOE, will maintain his provincial record of non-registered and his vote will be decisive to continue to consolidate the alliance of socialists and nationalists against the popular, who have a majority but not sufficient. There are fewer doubts in Monforte, where all the councilors of Tomé will accompany the mixed group to maintain the Town Hall.
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