A left “in shock” by the ‘Errejón case’ falls into cross accusations while seeking to recompose itself

Three scenarios to represent one of the most critical situations for the alternative left in recent times: the Podemos headquarters, the Downtown Space and the Congress of Deputies.

These three scenarios make up the composition of a fateful and desolate day for a space that begins to seek to recompose something that has been abruptly broken inside and outside it, that goes beyond the trust of the electorate and that challenges an imaginary, that of the left, that this Monday was not recognized before the mirror

The first Monday after Errejón scandal It has been in a certain sense marked by reproaches and by the search for responsibilities in the other. The scandal ball has been jumping from headquarters to headquarters until it bounces off a wall that has returned it with more force. The origin of the conflict: an attack by Errejón on a woman during a festival in Castelló in the summer of 2023.

Podemos, IU, those of Yolanda Díaz and Más Madrid They were then part of the same candidacy that was going to run in the 23J elections. The victim reported the events through a Twitter thread, which he later deleted without this complaint marking the end of the political career of an Errejón who continued to climb organic and political positions in Movimiento Sumar as a party and in Sumar as a space.

In the first scenario, the headquarters of Podemos, Pablo Fernández, secretary of Organization and spokesman for the party, has assured in his usual Monday press conference that They informed Yolanda Díaz the content of the thread on social network X (at that time, Twitter) in which Errejón was accused of having committed said act of sexist harassment. Fernández specified that Díaz “was the person who could do something at that moment.”

Errejón’s attack on a woman in Castelló

Yolanda Díaz assured late on Monday that she learned about this case from her team (who in turn had read the thread of the attacked woman on Twitter), and that she had spoken with the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarraand with Más Madrid on this matter. According to his story, he learned that the group led by Mónica García had opened a file that was later closed without consequences.

The ball had already been placed on the roof of Más Madrid since the morning, even before the vice president gave her explanations. The main leaders of the party, Monica Garcia (Minister of Health), Manuela Bergerot (spokesperson for the formation in the Madrid Assembly) and Rita Maestre (spokesperson for the formation in the Madrid City Council) offered a press conference at the Espacio Downtown.

From the recognition of their state of “shock” for having lived politically and personally (Maestre was Errejón’s partner) with a leader who had “two faces”, the party officials recognized his “mistake” due to “insufficient performance” in this case and apologized “as an organization.”

More Madrid recognized its “insufficient performance” in the case

However, they stated that, after learning of the attack through the published Twitter thread, they asked Errejón himself for information. Loreto Arenillasparty representative in the Assembly (who resigned from her positions on Friday after the management announced the loss of confidence in her), since it was mentioned in the message from the attacked woman.

Errejón and Arenillas, the leaders transferred, “they minimized” what happened; and, furthermore, the deputy would have acted “behind the back” of her executive, according to García, Bergerot and Maestre. The ball was thrown again and moved again.

Arenillas published a message on the social network X in which he claimed to have informed Bergerot and the party’s feminism officer; Furthermore, according to his story, he had offered the communications manager tell it publicly if necessary. The former deputy announced that she would formally appeal to the organization’s Guarantee Court. The last bounce of the ball crashed it against a wall and forcefully returned it to its previous location. The next move, if any, remains to be seen.

The third scenario is probably the most recurrent in politics. Sumar held a meeting of his parliamentary group in the Lower House this Monday to address this issue and the replacement in the Speaker’s Office. Regarding this second matter, nothing concrete was reached, since Izquierda Unida warned that “the conditions were not met” to reach an agreement between the different parties.

A meeting “of true mourning”

The leader of the party, Antonio Maílloasked this Monday morning that the election of a new parliamentary spokesperson for Sumar should not be resolved lightly. Considers that the moment that the space is going through requires a high dose of reflection and that before choosing the person to replace Errejón at the head of Sumar in Congress it would be advisable debate one’s own selection method. The IU leader stated that a reorganization of the group is necessary that also includes changes in the deputy spokespersons.

This is the position that IU took to the meeting on the issue of the spokesperson and, for the moment, the matter is still up in the air. The atmosphere of the meeting was, according to sources present at it, “of true mourning”.

The figures of the deputies arrived one by one to the Prim Room of Congress with serious faces and dark clothes, walking towards a gloomy atmosphere between long hugs of consolation marked by the pain of a loss, the loss of the own reflection that the left cast before the Errejón case.

At the meeting, IU put on the table the need to move towards democratic mechanisms in the election of positions within the group, and there were also some criticism about the image of the Movimiento Sumar press conference on Saturday, with Ernest Urtasun, his main spokesperson, surrounded by several women from the party executive.

Díaz announced that the group is studying leaving the work of detecting sexist harassment to “external and independent” agents

Díaz later announced that the group had decided to stop the detection work and prevention of sexist harassment of “external” and “independent” agentsin a week in which the most repeated phrase is that all the internal springs failed.

It remains to be seen the extent of these eventual changes and how the atmosphere within the group evolves. This Tuesday and Wednesday is the first plenary session since Errejón resigned last Thursday. It is expected that the Government control session will be complicated for Díaz. The Popular Party (PP) has already reported late this Monday that it will question her about this matter.