The PSOE leadership has been unable to calm the growing discontent sweeping the party after dealing with sexual harassment complaints against Francisco Salazar, a former top party official, and La Moncloa, sources from several socialist federations told El Pais newspaper. Far from easing tensions, the videoconference meeting with the equality secretariats of the autonomous regions and spokespersons in the general and regional parliaments was urgently called for 9:30 p.m. Pilar Bernabé, Federal Minister of Equality and Government Delegate to the Valencian Community, demonstrated the internal turmoil over resolving the crisis.
According to the sources who participated in the meeting, in the conversations that took place, clarifications were requested from Ferraz and consideration was given to transferring the case to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, on the grounds that it was due to sexual violence and that there might be signs of a crime, complaints against the former Secretary of Analysis and Electoral Action and the former senior official of La Moncloa, who resigned to be promoted to deputy area of the organization before the Federal Commission last July. The organization’s secretary, Rebecca Toro, did not participate in the meeting, according to sources from three federations. Annabelle Matthews, Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Planning and Coordination, did not do the same.
Barnabas opened the hour-long meeting, expressing his regret and asking for forgiveness from those affected. PSOE’s Equality Minister, a position to which she was appointed a year ago at the last Federal Congress of Socialists, insisted that complainants had not been left aside and that the party was working to resolve the process against Salazar. Six months ago, two associates filed complaints against a person who had been one of Pedro Sánchez’s closest supporters since the primaries in which he was re-elected against Susana Díaz, but in all this time the PSOE has neither addressed them nor acted seriously. The issue worsened when their complaints disappeared from the internal channel created to present them while respecting anonymity.
Bernabei asked for calm and confidence, stressed that complaints had not disappeared – in line with what the Socialist Workers Party advocated this week – and committed to holding a face-to-face meeting as soon as possible. The intention is for this to happen next week and for the PSOE’s legal services to be present to resolve doubts such as the scenario in which one of the militants who was reported to have been harassed withdraws as a member, as happened in the case of Salazar.
Ferraz said this week that he is keeping the file on Salazar’s harassment open after his resignation as a militant, something that has not been announced until now. Losing membership status does not mean the end of the procedure. The Anti-Harassment Committee will have to write its final report, which it will send to the organization’s secretariat and the parties.
PSOE leadership also made it clear that complaints would be resolved within the appropriate time — the established deadlines would be three months for investigation and three for resolving issues — and that there would be a prevention plan that would include training for the positions. However, the management of the crisis, of which Salazar was the champion, opened a new front for the PSOE at the gates of the electoral campaign in Extremadura.
The feeling of some regional equalities secretaries is that there is an intention to hold a “quick” meeting. Those responsible for that region in Asturias, Galicia and the Balearic Islands intervened, in addition to Andrea Fernandez, spokesman for the Equality Congress, according to sources at the meeting. They showed their anger in different colors, indicating that the prevailing feeling was the inadequacy of the procedures, to the point that the victims decided to report their case, which advanced elDiario.es. Bernabé interrupted the meeting while Fernandez was speaking, arguing that it was late and that there would be another in-person meeting, according to various participants. They also asked to speak and did not give the same reasons to the Senate spokeswoman, Carmela Silva, and the Equality Secretaries of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha.
“It’s nonsense,” said a senior SWP leader hours earlier. The scandal also increases the erosion caused by the daily drip of information about Ábalos and Cerdán, the two secretaries of the organization to whom Sánchez delegated the day-to-day management of the party from June 2017 to June 2025.
“If we don’t have enough, now this is exploding on us,” criticizes the general secretary of one of the federations. What no one expected to “get on the nerves” of the party, in the words of another regional leader, was the “indifference” in managing complaints against Salazar.
The Socialist Workers’ Party did not confirm that its anti-harassment office had actually contacted the two women who denounced Salazar and warned that her writings against the former socialist leader had disappeared into the party’s internal channel. Ferraz attributed this to a problem in the system, which has now been corrected, which further confused the party. The Socialist leadership sources consulted claim that they are an independent body and that they cannot access this information out of respect for the anonymity of the complainants. The leadership of the Socialist Workers’ Party did not support issuing a statement at the end of the meeting, although several unions requested this.
However, sources from La Moncloa take it for granted that the complainants, who are Salazar’s subordinates, have already been contacted at the party headquarters and at the La Moncloa compound. He also criticizes CEO Ferraz for the “unjustified slowness” with which he dealt with complaints. “It has been managed in such a way that they are the perpetrators and the aggressor appears to be the protected person. The prevailing feeling is that sexual violence is incomprehensible,” laments the Regional Equality Minister.
The lack of communication with complainants has “irritated” the SWP, according to a third regional baron, who declared he was “astonished” by the “lack of transparency in a party that also defines itself as feminist” in its statute. The various releases issued by the party in recent days, after Salazar resigned as a member following questions about his operation, were not understood. The Socialist Workers’ Party is keeping the file on Salazar’s harassment open after his resignation as an activist, which has not been announced yet. Losing membership status does not mean the end of the procedure. The Anti-Harassment Committee will have to write its final report, which it will send to the organization’s secretariat and the parties.
Ana Redondo, equality minister and former head of this field in the PSOE leadership, urged her party to be “more stringent” in selecting membership positions. He criticized: “These are disgusting and despicable behaviors, which have no place in any political party, let alone the Socialist Workers’ Party, and which demonstrate low moral character and manliness of the highest order.”
On Tuesday, Bernabe expressed regret at Cadena Ser for not exercising due diligence and apologized to those affected. She stressed: “I find it disgusting and shameful. As Minister of Equality, I wish the action had been more serious. For this reason, since we take the matter seriously and the Socialist Workers Party is completely inflexible with these behaviors, we are working to act in the quickest and most effective way.”