Among the critical statements, half a thousand companies and the discontent that penetrated to the engine room of the PSOE of Gallego. This is the panorama that José Ramón Gómez Besteiro faces since he admitted last month that he had sexual harassment accusations against one of the most powerful men in the party in the months before they were broadcast on a television show. Positions and functions of four provinces included in the management of this complaint against José Tomé, which concerned a close collaborator and who only communicated to two people of his greatest confidence. Unease was mobilized even among the only socialists who arrived at the presidency of the Xunta, Fernando González Laxe and Emilio Pérez Touriño. The bullshit, however, is confirmed in his actions and reveals a new complaint that affects one of the mayors who criticize him: an activist accuses the governor of Barbadás (Ourense) in retaliation for her work reporting an exile from her government who sexually harassed her.
The PSdeG earthquake is felt from point to point in Galicia. The Lugo activists published this manifesto in which they demand to “know the truth about what happened” with Tomé, “without incomplete truths and without fear of assuming responsibilities where there is room”. The editorial was carried out last weekend by some 70 socialist women and more than 450 companies, including more than 150 men. He recruited historical figures of Gallegian socialism, such as Touriño and Laxe, as well as 14 mayors and alcaldes from the provinces of A Coruña, Ourense and Pontevedra, as well as councils from different municipalities.
“Yo no firmo manifestos, yo hablo,” warned Abel Caballero on the phone. The mayor of Vigo speaks about this crisis without occupying organic positions in the PSdeG, but with the difficult situation of his 40 years in the socialist first line and his electoral crown in the town hall of Galicia. Her position coincides with that of the president of the party in Galicia, Carmela Silva, who this Sunday, in an article in Vigo Lighthousedictating that “things are not going well.” “Both in the process and over time, the executive made mistakes,” says the governor.
Caballero criticizes that “it takes a month and a half without transmitting (the accusations against Tomé) to the other party organs” and that he is thus acting “on a very sensitive and important issue”. “Now what we have to do is activate the party so that this does not happen again,” insists Caballero, who is clear about the possible organic consequences that this “visible unease” could have in the direction that Besteiro is taking. The mayor of La Coruña, Inés Rey, avoids asking for the reduction of the secretary general. “Nothing to say,” I said when asked.
After having denied for several days having knowledge of the accusations of sexual harassment against Tomé, president of the Diputación de Lugo, and in recent days socialist leader of this province, Besteiro admitted only last week that he had initiated them in October. I was not a victim to whom it was reported, but someone very close to her. Gallego’s socialism leader says he limited himself to deciding when he was told he was “encouraging” accused woman to speak out; he asked Tomé but he didn’t agree with him at all; and this only informed the subject of the people, those responsible for the Organization in Galicia and Lugo.
Bullshit, this was not communicated to anyone in higher management. Not even Silva, the party president, nor the head of Equality, Silvia Fraga. The latter ended due to his inability to manage the case. Caballero criticizes the fact that Fraga was “ignored” when it came to responding to accusations of this magnitude and related to his organizational responsibilities. And he urges the PSdeG general secretary to take steps to reverse his resignation: “I cannot allow it to disappear.”
One of Besteiro’s critics denounced for workplace harassment
Besteiro insists that he acted correctly and that there was nothing more he could do because, in cases of sexual harassment, the law only allows victims to be reported. “I respect these statements and I respect freedom of expression,” he says, but he asserts that he is acting “cautiously” and “quickly” and is not thinking of diminishing his speech. It was revealed that Ferraz’s anti-accused channel received another complaint. An activist, accompanied by several testimonies, accuses the mayor of Barbadás (Ourense), Xosé Carlos Valcárcel, of harassment at work, and assures that the governor of the reservoir left after being sent for sexual harassment to an advisor of his government who is not there. Valcárcel is one of the mayors of Orense who wrote a statement very critical of the Gallegian leaders. Thomas case, in which “immediate” limitations are requested before any complaint of this type and “firm and continuous support for victims” is advocated.. The leader of the PSdeG now asks him to leave all the positions he holds, but he refuses. This martes announced his decline in the party but without leaving the baton of command in his escaño to the Diputación. And we defend that what is said is the best of “negligence”.
Besteiro also received criticism from his predecessor in the party. Gonzalo Caballero, nephew and opponent of the mayor of Vigo, described Lucense’s mandate as a “historical disaster.” From Santiago, three councilors excluded from the party a few months ago, headed by the historic Mercedes Rosón, expressed their “desire to see someone capable of taking the leadership of a disoriented party in Galicia which with each passing day disappoints and defrauds activists, women and society in general”. “What did Besteiro want to do? » asks Mila Castro, former general secretary of the Compostela group, accused of “covert” management and an “organic structure that protects itself”. Ferraz reached these advisers by an expedient which they took to court. In court, Santos Cerdán was named as testigo. Then Organizing Secretary, today surrounded by accusations of corruption, he was the one who signed the resolution that expelled them.
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