The motion of censure against Asunción Loriente, president of the Spanish Rowing Federation, which was voted on Wednesday at an Assembly held in Banyoles (Girona), has finally failed. Gómez-Raggio, the controversial candidate who had 53 endorsements from 75 assembly members to start the maneuver, only got 37 votes in favor. 22 were against and 2, blank. Thus, Loriente will continue to direct the entity.
What began as an internal struggle between the Spanish Rowing Federation ended up becoming a matter of national repercussion. Loriente, the only woman president of an Olympic federation in this country, was elected for the first time in 2018 and last year she agreed to a new term with 54 votes in favor, nine abstentions and one null vote. Later he found a movement against it led by the lawyer from Malaga and former president of the Mediterranean Club José Agustín Gómez-Raggio, who gathered 53 endorsements among a total of 75 assembly members. (including territorial leaders and delegates, as well as 12 of the 14 athletes) to start the dismissal process. They alleged “disagreement with the management”, “disloyalty to voters” and “lack of direction and project”.
Loriente filed an appeal against the motion before the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD), which dismissed it considering that the signatories met the requirements and that the resolution of the Electoral Board that admitted the process is in accordance with the law.
The Higher Sports Council (CSD) and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) spoke out against Gómez-Raggio’s candidacy this Wednesday morning, through a joint statement in which they assured that it would be “difficult to conceive” the presidency of someone who “seriously insults, through the RRSS (social networks), to politicians of all stripes and institutions of all levels, with tweets loaded with hate, even directed at citizens of other nationalities”.
Many of the tweets referred to by CSD and COE were published over the past year. Gómez-Raggio has proceeded to delete several, but AS already echoed them on day 2. The man from Malaga charged in his account against politicians such as Pedro Sánchez, Pablo Casado or Pablo Iglesias, whom he calls “sons of p…”. He also insults minorities such as Chinese or Arabs and even proclaims that “fachas are superior in everything” or that “being a facha is a morally and aesthetically superior way of life.” When these messages hit the press, he defended himself by arguing that they are “complaining phrases about politicians that we have all made at some point” and that it is “a rude slip that we all have once been able to escape.”
Among the territorial ones that supported the implementation of the motion were the Basque, the Asturian, the Valencian, the Cantabrian, the Andalusian or the Galician, the latter chaired by José Manuel Seijas Galán, who has been in office for 40 years, except for a period in which the Xunta de Galicia disqualified him for not calling general assemblies for three years. For his part, Gómez-Raggio presided over the aforementioned Mediterranean Club until he decided to enroll in politics with Ciudadanos, a party that ended up expelling him “for not respecting the internal processes of the party.”
Loriente considers that the movement has a macho background. In a statement issued days ago, he highlighted the achievements of his management (three Olympic diplomas and world and European medals in the absolute and junior categories, in addition to going from red numbers to positive in economic terms) and affirmed that the motion “goes beyond what strictly sporty. “I can only think of the discomfort caused to certain people that it is a woman who is occupying this managerial position,” said the Spaniard, who in addition to presiding over rowing is part of the CSD Board of Directors and the European Rowing Board, and leads the Equality Commission of ADESP.
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