Member of PSOE federal executive resigns after new alleged case of harassment | Spain

Javier Izquierdo, a prominent member of the current PSOE leadership, resigned suddenly on Thursday as the main government party was plunged into a wave of harassment scandals. The resignation comes after a new alleged affair, according to party sources.

Responsible for Studies and Programs for the federal executive, Izquierdo was one of the few survivors of the team surrounded by the President of Government upon his return to Ferraz after his victory in the 2017 primaries.

“After years in public and organic functions of my party, I informed the federal leadership of my resignation as a member of the CEF (Federal Executive Commission) and also as a senator. I do it to face other professional and personal tasks, sure that there will be someone who will do it better. Always grateful”, justified Izquierdo with a message on his account on the social network X.

Izquierdo, senator since July 2023, left the WhatsApp group of the PSOE leadership at 6:41 p.m., according to what his former colleagues told EL PAÍS. Already in the morning he missed his absence at the breakfast of Iratxe García, also a member of the socialist executive, president of the parliamentary group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and of the same federation, that of Castilla y León. In the afternoon, Izquierdo also did not attend an assembly of the Valladolid group on the autonomous lists.

Izquierdo served as secretary general of the PSOE of Valladolid between 2012 and 2017. That year, during the 39th Federal Congress, he was elected executive formation secretary of the PSOE. During the 40th Federal Congress, he was elected secretary for strategy and electoral action.

Currently, he has been Senator of Valladolid of the 15th Legislature and titular member of the Permanent Deputation of the Upper House, spokesperson for the Housing and Urban Agenda Commission, of the Commission of Inquiry into the Management of the President of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS); Deputy Spokesperson for the Home Affairs Committee and member of the Joint Committee on National Security and the Joint Committee for the European Union.

He was deputy of Valladolid in the Congress of Deputies of the 12th century and prosecutor of the Cortes de Castilla y León, between 2015 and 2018.

Izquierdo’s resignation came just one day after that of the president of the Lugo Provincial Council and provincial secretary of the PSOE, José Tomé. Already this Friday, the PSOE convened Rebeca Torró’s first press conference since she was appointed Organizing Secretary in place of Santos Cerdán in July. The PSOE intends to end the crisis through its handling of sexual harassment complaints against Francisco Salazar, former leader of the party leadership and La Moncloa who also won Sánchez’s trust during the primaries against Susana Díaz. Salazar was going to be one of Torró’s three deputies until accusations of harassment against him forced him to leave the executive before the socialists’ highest decision-making body met between congresses.

The Secretary of Equality, Government Delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, summoned in the afternoon, at 4 p.m., at the state headquarters of the party, the leaders of this sector of the federations to a face-to-face meeting, according to sources close to the meeting. The in-person meeting is a commitment that Bernabé made during the video conference urgently convened on Wednesday last week after the scandal of the five months that have passed since the complaints against Salazar were filed without the formation’s Anti-Harassment Office having done anything.