The PP balances to squeeze out the ‘Errejón case’ without assuming the law of ‘only yes means yes’

In 2019, in an electoral debate for the general elections on April 28, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledothen candidate of the Popular Party for Barcelona, ​​confronted María Jesús Montero for the “affirmative consent” in sexual relations that the PSOE included in its electoral program. The foundations of the law of ‘only yes means yes’ began to be consolidated in society after the La Manada ruling and Álvarez de Toledo revolted against it: “Are you guys really going to say yes, yes, yes until the end?”.

Three years later, in 2022, the law that put consent – ​​the absence of it – at the center, eliminated the concept of sexual abuse and made street harassment a crime, among other issues, came into force, with the radical opposition of the right, both from the PP and Vox. Throughout these years, hand in hand with feminist advances, the MeToo movement has also remained alive—in Spain, Cuéntalo—which emerged in 2017 in the United States through which women victims of sexual harassment or assault took the step of telling their stories. testimonies and point out their attackers.

Since last week, Sumar’s former spokesperson, Inigo Errejónis confronting his MeToo with a cascade of women who recount experiences of sexual harassment. One of them has filed a complaint against Errejón in which she recounts at least three sexual assaults—although at the time they occurred they were still classified as abuse.

The political scandal is huge and the consequences for a left that has championed the feminist struggle are yet to be determined. And that is where the PP has set its objective with two words that they have repeated non-stop in recent days: “cover-up” and “hypocrisy”. For the PP, the ‘Errejón case’ must become the case of Sumar, of the Government and of the left as a whole, but tiptoeing through the substance of the issue.

Sources from Feijóo’s team emphasize that Errejón would have committed a sexual assault “according to his own law”, in reference to Irene Montero’s “yes is yes” law against which they have campaigned for five years.

The national president of the PP, in his speech at the National Executive Committee held this Monday in Madrid, expressed his “support” for the victims who “already saw how their aggressors were released from prison by the ‘yes means yes’ law and now they return to prison.” suffer, not only the facts, but his cover-up”but avoided asking for resignations or dismissals. The deputy secretary would do it a few minutes later. Ester Muñoz through their social networks.

Génova, according to sources close to Feijóo, is not now seeking to lead the offensive against the Government over this issue, but rather hopes that it will be the left who joins “alone” in an internal battle while they take advantage of their wear and tear among public opinion. “The Government is baking in its hypocrisy,” stressed the opposition leader, comfortable in criticizing the Executive but uncomfortable in the public debate on sexual violence within the framework of the new paradigm established by the law of only ‘yes means yes’ . The popular They have to strike a balance to squeeze out the ‘Errejón case’, but not assume the framework of a norm that their electorate completely rejects and that they have committed to reversing.

How has the PP acted?

Furthermore, with this harsh speech the PP now also faces its own contradictions: Has it always been like this?

Last year, within the framework of the 2023 general elections, Feijóo justified the Vox candidate, Carlos Flores Juberías, convicted of sexist violence, saying that he had had “a tough divorce”. The PP made it a condition that he leave the Government in the Valencian Country to agree with Vox, but Flores Juberías is now a deputy and the PP has not pointed out the extreme right for this movement.

The silence of the PP in the ‘Nevenka case’recently told in a film by Iciar Bollaín. The then president of the conservative party, José María Aznar, participated in the complicit silence with the mayor of Ponferrada after the young councilor’s complaint. Twenty years later, the PP has prevented the film from being filmed in the Leonese town.

In the same way, the defense that the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, made in January 2023 of Placido Domingo after complaints of sexual harassment from dozens of women in this regard.