“The problem has eaten away at us”

Six months later, the image of lunch from the government spokesperson, Pilar Alegriawith Salazar himself, opened the box of thunder last week, when we learned that this plaintiffs’ case was paralyzed for unexplained reasons.

The problem for the PSOE is that in addition, the latter is added to the fact that in recent days two other cases have occurred in the party’s positions: Antonio Navarrosocialist general secretary in Torremolinos and José Tomépresident of the Provincial Council of Lugo and mayor of Monforte, who presented his resignation yesterday.

And it was also terminated Antonio Hernandez from his position as advisor in Sánchez’s cabinet in Moncloa for supporting the alleged sexual harassment of Francisco Salazar.

All this created a climate of psychosis within the PSOE which provoked the rebellion of socialist women from all over Spain, activated alerts due to the possibility that there would be an effect encouraging more complaints in other places and showed, according to party members, the feeling of emptiness in the Ferraz headquarters.

There was already a feeling of emptiness and lack of activity at this location after the fall of the last two secretaries of the Organization -José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán- and due to the transfer of all political weight to Moncloa.

The blocking of the Salazar file has increased this impression, according to various PSOE sources.

The response of the socialist leadership, ordered from Moncloa, was that of speed up the file as much as possible on the complaints against Salazar and the difficult acting in other cases, like that of Tomé in Lugo.

Within hours, the party announced that it “had initiated the procedure to temporarily suspend its activism. After his resignation to continue leading his position as president of the Provincial Council of Lugo, the PSOE demands that to deliver your minutes both as deputy of Lugo and as mayor of Monforte de Lemos”.

This rapid reaction, preceded by pressure from PSOE women and government partners and the threat of the BNG to break the agreement of the Provincial Council of Lugo if he did not resign, contrasts with the lack of response against Salazar for months.

That is to say that if you are an advisor to the president of the Government in Moncloa the answer of the PSOE It’s much warmerto the point that it crashes for months.

The feminist women of the PSOE with a certain current weight and consulted by EL ESPAÑOL go further. They indicate that the channels for reporting these cases, within the PSOE, are working, but that in this case it is a “joke”.

They point out that there was indeed a mistake with Salazar: male corporatismwhich exists in all sectors and parties, specify these sources.

a theater

Regarding the reasons why the file was not processed, they point out that in June “a small theater” was made and that after the expulsion, in the organization chart the three that remain –Rebeca Torró, Anabel Mateos and Borja Cabezón– They are people from Salazar. And so “no one had the slightest interest in moving the file”.

They are aware that it is necessary to discern what is an individual act and a collective act. “But by showing support, the individual act becomes a collective act and affects the entire PSOE.” They thus point out the “enormous error” of Pilar Alegría has lunch with Salazar at the beginning of November.

It should be added to this that the former advisor opened a political consulting firm in September a few meters from Ferraz, and that apparently he had been promised that things would be entrusted to him, they explain.

They argue that what happened harms the Socialist Party more than others. Something they already know, since they point out that they are carrying out surveys which indicate that, from June to October, The PSOE lost 10 points of female voting intention.

“With this question, the PSOE can die,” they warn. “Because more than a disappointment, it is already a betrayal Women’s.”

Concerning the fact of not having brought the matter before the prosecution, the feminists consulted specify that they had five months to support the complainants in doing so. It is not enough to say today that the complaints are anonymous, there are many, in response to what Pedro Sánchez himself said a few days ago.

Thus, the error, they understand, is that of Pedro Sánchez “who did not calculate that among the women of the PSOE there is a very consolidated feminism. That’s why it seems incredible that after stopping Salazar’s appointment, they couldn’t process the complaints for so many months. They didn’t even call to the complainants or to conceal”.

The situation, they understand, is serious, because it would be, allegedlyof the commission of two crimes: one for sexual harassment and another for abuse of power, since the complainants were not work colleagues of Salazar, but rather subordinates.

The underlying problem

All the sources consulted belonging to socialist feminism agree on the fact that what happened cannot be limited to the simple fact of looking at the finger instead of looking at the moon. The underlying problem, they argue, is that PSOE feminists were expelled from the core of power, leaving a vacuum that ended up provoking the MeToo of the PSOE.

“It’s not just what (Pedro Sánchez) has done with feminism now. It’s that he’s undone some of what had been done before.” Since the start of his government, they indicate.

In the beginning, there were women from very different backgrounds working together. He expelled some of them almost immediately: they were the majority opposed it to their current, express the feminists of the PSOE.

In the hard core they continued for a while Adriana Lastra and Carmen Calvo. “It looked like they were going to have some pockets of power, but neither.” Supported by Ábalos, Santos Cerdán and Salazar, he finally ended up doing without the classic feminists “and then the Sánchez feminists. They exhausted Adriana and she left”.

All this makes the reflections oscillate between those actions in the current PSOE “do not correspond to being feminist” and others, much more incisive. “The women They are not comfortable for Sanchismo never. He got rid of any woman in charge. And what happens is single men protect themselves and engage in sexist behavior.”

Behaviors which, they claim, have been hidden. The Salazar affair caused PSOE feminists to explode. “They cover themselves. Everyone in Madrid had known Ábalos for a long time: he was a consumer of prostitution. At the Valencian PSOE, everyone knew it for many years.”

Other voices of socialist feminism warn that what happened “must be on the table and must be used to change direction. When the Socialist Party makes mistakes, it is capable of changing. We did this by turning to centrist policies and successfully moving to the left. »

a symptom

Thus, they emphasize, it is “not a specific event, but a symptom. This is not an isolated event. Because feminist socialists have repeatedly brought many things, many problems, to the table, and we have not been listened to. “The feminist agenda has not been a priority, it does not exist and the problem has consumed us.”

All the sources consulted also emphasize that “PSOE feminists must work calmly. This must not end with a one-off explosion: it must stop.”

The situation of unrest is such that, in a group of WhatsApp from a socialist group to which this newspaper had access, a man defends the dominant feminism in the PSOE by having as candidates for María Jesús Montero in Andalusia or Pilar Alegría in Aragon. The women respond that Sánchez took them both hitchhiking.

Because the PSOE, they warn, must change, listen to its women and not limit itself to putting them on equal lists. “Women cannot simply appear in even numbers on the lists. We want to decide, we want to be at the negotiating tables, in relevant positions, and not because a man appoints us.”

The Salazar problem is just the tip of the top, they point out. “They give us public positions, but the men frame us. And if they frame us… well, everything could end up like that. They put these kinds of people crush women and everyone who disagrees accuses her of being disloyal.

So the summary is that feminism “cannot just come out with a March 8 banner: we don’t want to marketing feminismthat’s what they leave us. Then we take to the streets and those who vote for us in Spain are women. “This is an objective fact and we cannot fail them.”