The PSOE now says it will investigate complaints of harassment it received against Paco Salazar from two socialist militants, despite his resignation from the struggle and their disappearance from the system. Socialist spokesman Montse Menguez emphasized that “Salazar’s loss of membership status does not mean the end of the procedure.” “The process has not been closed or concluded, even though Salazar has lost his membership status,” Minguez stressed.
Two militants reported four and a half months ago on the internal channel that Pedro Sánchez’s then advisor in the Moncloa government had “crossed the line” with “misogynistic behaviour”, but they received no response, although the protocol established by the PSOE for complaints of this kind sets out an investigation period of three months, which can be extended for another six months in “exceptional” cases.
But not only did the complainants receive no response, their files disappeared from the system. When asked by El Diario, the Socialist leadership attributed this situation to a “lack of diligence,” but stressed that Salazar’s lack of affiliation made it pointless to continue the investigation. This initial response was changed after elDiario.es was published.
The spokesman attributed the delay in the investigation to the complexity of handling anonymous complaints. “We are talking about anonymous complaints, they have a particular difficulty,” Menguez said at the press conference after the CEO meeting when this outlet asked him about taking responsibility for not investigating the case in a timely manner.
The spokesman said, “The party is committed to every one of the women, and to all active women,” stressing that “this process is not over yet.” He explained that the Anti-Harassment Authority will draft a report that will be submitted to the organization’s secretariat and will also be sent to the parties.
Mengues sent a “message of reassurance” to “comrades who want to use this protocol.” The spokesman said: “We are working and the process is continuing. The process will continue until it reaches its end,” boasting that “the Socialist Workers Party is the first party to implement a protocol on harassment,” which was “approved in May and its implementation began in July.” He concluded his speech by saying: “We are the pioneers.”
Socialist sources say that “nothing has been deleted,” even though nothing appears in the system regarding the action, and that this is due to a computer malfunction that is being resolved. These sources indicate that “what they are doing is a kind of data hiding, but it is not an interruption. Complaints reach the anti-harassment office. Although they are not seen there, this does not mean that they are not present in that office,” stressing that complaints “will appear again” in the system for the process to be completed.