Taking advantage of the temperatures typical of these dates, the Galician Socialist Party (PSdeG) is trying that the fire that has risen in their ranks since the outbreak of the “Tome affair” calms down, following complaints on television against the current president of the Provincial Council of Lugo … and mayor of Monforte de Lemos for alleged sexual harassment of women linked to the party. Between internal criticism for the management of this episode Under the leadership of José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, two other fronts were opened in the form of complaints for workplace harassment against the mayors of Barbadás (Orense) and A Coruña, but the party decided postpone the analysis of this delicate situation in his senior body between congresses until Christmas passes.
The crisis arose on the night of December 9. Cuatro’s “Code 10” show highlighted several testimonies against José Tomé for Lewd comments, non-consensual touching and even proposals for sex in exchange for jobs. After being begged for a few hours, Tomé resigned the next afternoon. Even if he did it half-heartedly. He requested his suspension from the PSOE and resigned from the leadership of the party in the province of Lugo and from the presidency of the Provincial Council in a deferred manner – he remains in office until the 30th – but announced that he would remain provincial deputy and head of the Monforte town hall as a non-registered councilor.
The party waited for his appearance before making a statement, through a statement, while Besteiro canceled his schedule and only came forward almost three days after the complaints were broadcast on television. He did this during a press conference during which admitted to having been aware of a testimony in October in the mouth of a third person, but who had never spoken to any victim. At the same time, the resignation of the party’s equality secretary, Silvia Fraga, became known due to differences in the way the organization reacted.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and led the mayor of La Coruña, Inés Rey, to promote a manifesto of support for Fraga in which she demanded “firm and consistent action” in the face of a situation that caused “stupor, shame and inevitable disaffection with the party”. The text was signed by former socialist presidents Emilio Pérez Touriño and Fernando González Laxe. Previously, another statement had already emerged in the province of Ourense, supported by representatives of the small party. Among them, the mayor of Barbadás, Xosé Carlos Valcárcel Doval. The letter warned that “Anyone who hides, protects, relativizes or slows down investigations becomes an accomplice and, as such, he must also assume his responsibilities and leave all his positions.
It turns out that Rey and Valcárcel a few days later, they received complaints of workplace harassment through the internal complaints channel of the PSOE, which failed. In the case of the councilor of Orense, Besteiro immediately requested his resignation, but he did not dare to do the same with the mayor of the second city of Galicia, whose name resounds recurrently in lies like almost the only replacement available in the socialist career if the current secretary general ends up falling. Rey speaks openly about a “misuse” of the internal channel by two former advisors from the previous mandate who were not repeated on the lists.
Time heals everything
Once the manifestos and statements in the media have been overcome, the different families of the party will have the opportunity to see each other and express themselves on the wave of complaints within a National Committee that Besteiro preferred to leave for January 10 in the hope that Time heals everything. As the days go by and we will see it, the general secretary of the Galician PSOE trusts him, Sánchez’s man in Galicia, this plays with the fact that there are no elections in sight and that there is, for the moment, no clear alternative within the party.
After the last regional elections, he survived, even though the socialists obtained the worst result in their history. We will have to see what happens in the municipal elections which will take place in spring 2027, with a PSOE which now governs in three of the seven main Galician cities and which, after the “Tome case”, one of them could be left: Lugo, and even lose their stronghold of the Provincial Council. That is, if there are no general elections in which the Galician socialist leadership can move and get rid of the hot potato that now more than ever leads the PSdeG.
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