The PSOE is confronted with a “me too” within its formation. Situations of sexual harassment attributed to Paco Salazar They have become the tip of the iceberg. After having transcended this affair and its consequences, he was … has triggered a cascade of complaints that have already cost the careers of other party officials, from the president of the Provincial Council of Lugo, to the secretary general of the PSOE of Torremolinos, including a member of the Federal Executive. And the list keeps growing.
The questioning of testimonies, initially, then the burying of complaints in the internal channel of journalism or the lack of vigor continue to inflame a party which This Friday, he brought together his Equality secretaries at the Ferraz headquarters to try to contain the deep unrest that is affecting all federations. A meeting lasting more than three hours, which official sources describe as “very productive”, and on which the participants did not wish to make statements. Yes, it came out, in the end, Pilar Bernabé to ensure that “a before and an after” was marked in the match and that “if the mistake was made as we recognized it, we learn”. The Secretary for Equality of the Executive wanted to show her chest, assuring that “it is no coincidence that a movement emerges with such force in the PSOE, because women set the bar very high”.
In a conversation with this newspaper, there are socialist leaders who ask that Pedro Sánchez is the one who assumes the responsibilities “in the first person” for what happened and for the people he appointed to positions of responsibility. “It is very difficult for me to think that our secretary general was not aware or was not aware of the behavior of the people who accompanied him on a daily basis,” confides a leader, very critical of the management that was made of the crisis.
The sources consulted cannot quite determine what this would be about. “responsibilities”, they leave them “at the discretion” of Sánchezbut they demand public explanations. So far, the President of the Government has limited himself to emphasizing that “feminism gives us lessons every day, me first” and, in an informal conversation with journalists, during the Constitution Day in the Congress of Deputies, he assumed the “error” in the first person of not diligently following up on the complaints, but described it as “not premeditated” and denied any collusion with Salazar’s actions.
The explanations given by management also worried the federations, particularly with regard to in the absence of five months of action. They claim in the anti-harassment body’s internal report that they were unable to contact Salazar because he was usually traveling and because one of the appointments they had made coincided with a public holiday and, therefore, they chose to cancel it. During this time, the government spokesperson had time to share a table and a tablecloth with Salazar, a personal meeting, according to Pilar Alegría herself.
This Friday in Ferraz is not the first meeting of this type to be held. On the night of December 3, Pilar Bernabé urgently summoned all her territorial counterparts electronically to stop the promotion of an internal manifesto currently being developed and try to contain the internal rebellion. The meeting did not go well and some participants were even interrupted or not allowed to speak.. The commitment was to organize one in the future, with the help of legal services to explain the avenues to be explored.
“It is very difficult for me to think that our secretary general did not know the behavior of the people who accompanied him on a daily basis”
Within the party, we have been trying for weeks to calm heated tempers and this Friday morning, the Secretary of the Organization, Rébéca Torroappeared from Ferraz headquarters to report the outcome of the internal investigation carried out by the party’s anti-harassment body. The report confirms the “plausibility” of the complaints, but the PSOE will not bring the facts to the attention of the prosecution. They simply offer to provide “support” to female complainants who wish to take legal action and will also provide them with psychological help, if they need it.
This situation has generated deep unease within the party, which demands that the leadership show strength and go to court, if the facts constitute a crime. Ferraz responds that This is a “very serious fault” at the organic levelwhich will prevent Salazar’s readmission as an activist in the future, but this has nothing to do with “legal qualification” or criminal. It was dissidence that marked the meeting, because even though Equality officials asked to act accordingly, to take them to the Prosecutor’s Office, the management considered the complainants’ stories to be credible.
Galician equality secretary resigns
At the same time as the meeting, the resignation of the Galician Secretary for Equality, Silvia Fraga, was made official, who did not go to Ferraz and who is leaving her post after Besteiro admitted to having read one of the testimonies about José Tomé last October. Fraga is one of the driving forces behind the internal rebellion against Salazar’s leadership and, once a case arose in her own federation, due to consistency and differences with the leadership, she decided to leave. Tomé also formalized his resignation from the presidency of the Provincial Council of Lugo, presenting the document corresponding to the register of the provincial institution.
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