The PSOE arrives at the start of the electoral campaign in Extremadura far from its best moment, tying up a series of crises whose protagonists are the heavyweights who surrounded Pedro Sánchez when he returned to Ferraz in the 2017 primaries. The latest episode has stunned the party even more: its handling of sexual harassment complaints against Francisco Salazar, another mainstay of the president, as well as José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán. The complaints were filed in July by two card-carrying workers from the La Moncloa complex, but the group, which defines itself as feminist in its statute and counts women as its main constituency, has given no priority to resolving them. Adriana Lastra, the most powerful woman in the PSOE at that point and without whom Sánchez’s career would be inexplicable, was the spokesperson who expressed the indignation that the PSOE had aroused by urging them to submit complaints against Salazar to the Public Prosecutor’s Office because it was “violence against women.” The previous night, the SWP leadership had failed to calm anger within the party, as was confirmed in an emergency remote meeting with equality officials.
The beginning of the political path was hopeful for socialists thanks to Alberto Nunez Viejo’s actions with abortion and the Gaza massacre. “It’s a buoy, and buoys get punctured at some point and run out of air,” one regional baron warned in those weeks. As had been feared, September lagged behind, and the judicial fall that the Socialists had predicted for the People’s Party in July, when a series of scandals by the last two secretaries of the organization had brought them to the brink, not only did not happen, but became a series of crises for Ferraz and La Moncloa.
The imprisonment of the former Minister of Transport and his ex-adviser, making threats against the government without providing any evidence, was already a “very heavy burden” on the SWP, according to the regional leader of one of the most powerful unions. The candidacy of Miguel Ángel Gallardo for the regional government of Extremadura, which already had to deal with the unprecedented situation of an applicant being prosecuted for allegedly having contact with the brother of the head of government in the Council of Government, has faced another bomb with a delayed impact. What no one thought about was Feraz’s inaction Salazar case It will open an unexpected front for the Socialist Workers Party. Not to mention that it exploded at the gates of the elections in which the Socialist Workers Party, according to all opinion polls, will achieve its worst result in one of its former strongholds.
The leadership of the Socialist Workers’ Party remains silent about what step it will take and will go to the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the request of the Asturian Federation, which is specifically one of the four societies it chairs. Ferraz’s sources explained that the Anti-Harassment Committee is “working to prepare the report” and have it ready as quickly as possible. The excuse for the lack of explanations is that the anti-harassment team is an independent body within the party. The organization’s region also does not issue signals and has not spoken to the management of several federations that were consulted.
In this context, Sánchez, at the launch of his electoral campaign with Gallardo in Plasencia (Cáceres), did not refer to the latest fire that the PSOE must put out, despite the blow that the file against Salazar caused to a reputation already damaged by Abalos’ relationship with women and his abusive conversations with García as if they were cattle. It was Blanca Martin, president of the Extremadura Assembly, who appealed to the women’s vote: “Of course the women are with the PSOE. And as always, as always, let’s not allow ourselves to be poisoned by so much bad news and such bad feelings. We know who we are and what we stand for.”
The PSOE has been beating itself up all week. Pilar Bernabe, Secretary of State for Equality and Government Delegate in the Valencian Region, asked for “tolerance” and “apology” for the timid handling of the case. Salazar case While the internal discomfort does not subside. While more and more cadres look to Rebecca Toro, the third organizing secretary in the history of the PSOE with whom Sánchez wanted to convey the message that he is breaking with the uncomfortable past represented by Albalos and Cerdán. But also Salazar. Directorate leaders of several federations believe that the delay in the PSOE’s reaction is due to the “closeness” that Toro and his two deputies in the organization, Anabel Mateos and Borja Cabezon, maintained with Salazar.
Accusations of harassment led, before the last federal committee of the PSOE in July, to the resignation of the third deputy of the organization who until that moment had been one of the main elements of Simillas – the mind of the La Moncloa complex – and former secretary of analysis and electoral action of the federal leadership. The party thought it had covered up the crisis until it exploded this week. And the discomfort begins to appear more and more after that shock first. “Force must be part of the response when events with these characteristics occur, whether they affect whom they affect or on which side, and in myself as well. Hence force, rejection, and reparation.” Number two Interior Minister Aina Calvo, who previously served as Secretary of State for Equality.
As he had already done in the last Federal Commission, where he ordered at Ferraz’s door that Salazar not repeat himself at the head of the PSOE, Lastra led the way in countering Ferraz’s calls for calm and confidence. “Violence against women is not a matter of the private sphere, it is a public crime. Therefore, what we conveyed yesterday (this Wednesday) to the federal executive is that once the work of the Anti-Harassment Commission is completed, which I understand is collecting information, what must be done immediately is to understand that we are talking about violence against women, and inform the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” Lastra claimed at an event in Asturias. His words had an additional impact: the Malaga prosecutor’s office on Thursday opened proceedings in an alleged sexual harassment case against Torremolinos city secretary Antonio Navarro. The regional leadership asked the federal executive to prevent him as a militant.
With the party affected by a series of masculinity cases, Bernabé stressed in Valencia that the PSOE “discovered the problem and provided the solution” in the specific case of Salazar and that the party’s anti-harassment committee was working “to address this issue with the utmost compassion and sensitivity.” “We will work to improve all mechanisms,” Bernabe promised. Salazar case He stressed, “We will try to resolve the matter as quickly as possible, with a committee of sensitive and appropriate experts to address this issue with the utmost compassion and sensitivity.” Congress spokesman Andrea Fernandez called for “explaining what happened in black and white, and above all protecting the victims.” “I want all victims to know that there are many of us who are here for them,” was the message Fernandez stressed in a conversation with this newspaper.