Pablo Fernández, secretary of the Organization and spokesperson for Podemos, said this Monday that he informed the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, of the Twitter feed of a young woman who accused the then Sumar candidate, Íñigo Errejón, in the summer of 2023, to understand that he was the person who “could do something about it”.
At that time, the purples were still part of the coalition. In fact, the thread was published the same day they were included in Sumar’s electoral roll for the 2023 elections. This list negotiation was marked by a formidable tug-of-war with the vice president, who opposed his vetoed the candidacy by the Minister for Equality at the time, Irene Montero.
Now, Podemos claims to have already informed Sumar’s management that there was a public accusation against Errejón, who was number 4 on Madrid’s list. Precisely one position above Ione Belarrageneral secretary of the purples, who was in the 5th.
Pablo Fernández, secretary of the Podemos Organization since the end of January, avoided specifying what Yolanda Díaz’s response was when they warned her of this “very uncomfortable situation with Íñigo Errejón which could be described as sexist aggression“, as the complainant called it in June 2023.
He also denied the failure of controls at Podemos, even though Errejón’s oldest known complaint dates back to 2015, when he was still part of the organization. However, Fernández assures that they were “not aware of any attitude of this type when he was at Podemos.”
Although it is now known that the former politician’s career has been marked by similar attitudes in recent years, at the time it was the first time anyone had mentioned his first and last names. In the now-deleted Twitter thread, the woman denounced touching in the middle of a concert in Castellón.
“I stood still without knowing how to react, as if in shock. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t say exactly how much time had passed, but like the other times, I can assure you that it wasn’t not two seconds either,” she said.
There is another important chapter about this event, the one that affects Más Madrid. this Friday Loreto Arenillasregional deputy accused of having concealed this event, submitted her report to the Assembly, in turn accusing the party leadership of having used her as a “scapegoat”.
In a response statement released Friday evening, Arenillas assures that in June 2023 he reported the episode to Manuela Bergerotcurrent spokesperson for Más Madrid in the Assembly, and another senior official, “information that they considered not submitting to the party’s authorities”. No one except Arenillas was held responsible.
“Since the accusations of sexual harassment against Íñigo Errejon became known, I have been the subject of an immense campaign of lies and the leadership of my parliamentary group has not allowed me to not even the slightest opportunity to explain […] I have never concealed any act of harassment or sexist violence,” Arenillas defended, having already left his party.
