The last public battle between the two was on July 16 of that year. That day, the dean of the Faculty of Information Sciences, Jorge Clementespoke to the Governing Council and asked the rector of the Complutense University, Joaquin Goyachefor the Competitive Social Transformation chair which he co-directed Begoña Gomez.
The subject was already hot since the previous meeting of the University’s Board of Trustees, during which they clashed over this same issue. But in this meeting the fight was expressed shouting, with constant interruptions and the rector’s threat to withdraw his speech. Since then, these debates have no longer been broadcast openly, as was the case until then.
The dispute between Clemente and Goyache, in reality, finds its origin in the election of the rector himself, in March 2023. It intensified with the scandal of the master Begoña Gómez and today reaches its peak with an internal complaint for “harassment at work”. » presented by Ubaldo Cuestavice-rector of Communication of the University.
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“The complaint follows a situation of continuous harassment at work, it’s a intimidation of book. He keeps several chairs paralyzed, blocks the economic affairs of the University and puts forward legal arguments that are false. None of this has to do with the question of Begoña Gómez“, assures the complainant, Ubaldo Cuesta, to this newspaper.
Previously, the accused Jorge Clemente introduced it in the commission of inquiry held at the Madrid Assembly. “In recent months I wanted to say for insistently requesting, both from the Board of Directors and from the Faculty of the University, information on the functioning of the extraordinary chairs,” he declared.
And this positioning, the dean of Information Sciences added on Wednesday, “seems to have been considered harassment at work coming from higher levels”.
What they do not hide within the University is that there is a a fierce power struggle and that Jorge Clemente is trying to become some kind of “spokesperson of discontent” against Goyache. But these hostilities do not come from this risky Governing Council, nor from the judicial investigation into Begoña Gómez. We must go further.
A polarized election
The elections for the rectorate of Complutense have always had a marked ideological connotation. It is the most important public university in Spain, with a budget in 2023 of 618 million eurosand in which relations with the political administration – the Community of Madrid provides most of the financing – are fundamental.
This is why the last elections, held in March last year, were measured in these same terms.
Goyache, candidate for re-election, had been a man of left-wing tradition in its origins. But shortly before the elections, he appointed Isabel Diaz Ayuso an illustrious student from the Faculty of Information Sciences and part of the university community jumped on him. Even with a signature collection campaign against him.
This polarization earned him the support of a large part of the conservative sector, which allowed him to win at the polls, with 55% of the votes, against Esther del Campoprofessor of political science and who was linked to the most left wing of the University.
Goyache then appointed some members of this conservative sector to important positions. And when his personal involvement in the chair of Begoña Gómez became known, they accused him of wanting to put one foot in Moncloa and another at Puerta del Solseat of the presidency of the Community of Madrid.
Shadow Opposition
Jorge Clemente had initially supported during these elections Iñaqui Lopezprofessor of business organization. But when his candidacy was abandoned, he sided with Esther del Campo.
Since then, university sources point out, he has tried to exercise a sort of counter-power in the shadows. “He is an accidental opposition leader. Although in a situation of power vacuum could take a step forward“, they admit of Complutense.
To remove Goyache, a challenge would have to be presented to the Board of Trustees, where deans, department chairs or other members are present – many of whom are appointed by designation of the rector. Even if at present, several sources insist, there is not enough consensus for that.
The investigation into Begoña Gómez, in which Goyache himself was accused by the judge Juan Carlos Peinadohas become an opportunity for the critical sector.
Jorge Clemente had already established himself as the most visible spokesperson for this initiative. discomfort existing within the University, even if the complaint against him does not directly respond to the criticisms of the “Begoña case”.
Paralyzed chairs
Clemente, as dean of the Faculty of Information Sciences, is responsible for approving extraordinary professorships related to his department. And according to different sources at the University, half a dozen of them are currently paralyzed, including three led by Ubaldo Cuesta.
The vice-rector for Communication, appointed by Goyache, insists that Clemente asserts that The Joint Commission did not meet -the collegial monitoring and control body of the presidency-, of these titles, while “it is not true”. The chairs therefore “remain blocked” until the academic institutions make a decision.
The dean of information sciences, for his part, emphasizes that there is various irregularities to justify your decision.
Ubaldo Cuesta filed the complaint for “harassment at work” “two or three months ago” and it is now in the hands of the Services Inspectorate, responsible for resolving disciplinary cases, where Jorge Clemente was already came to testify.
The dean of Information Sciences accused the rector, during this controversial meeting of the Governing Council, of “damaging the reputation” of Complutense. But after all this subject, exposed to the deputies of the Madrid Assembly, there are internal struggles that do not improve the image of this public university either.
