Former ERC deputy in Congress denounced before the Labor Maltrate Party by Pilar Vallugera | News from Catalonia
To the former deputy of Republican Esquerra In Congress and already ex -militant of the Maria Dantas formation, he does not mind standing in the middle of the hotel bar in Barcelona and theatricalizing the episode that filled the vessel of his endurance. Delineates the space of what Pilar Vallugera's office, benchmate in Congress between 2019 and 2023 and veteran party would be. It was September 2020. He explains that after belittling His work with Trans Law and launch a heated traffic speech, she cuts her step by exit. “This law will not come out, we will not register it. You will have Gabriel (Rufián), Carolina (Telechea), Ramón (Soldán, Technical Coordinator). But I have feminism of this game, ”he snapped, pointing to his face with his finger, and then screaming for the offices. Another deputy and an advisor confirm what happened.
This is one of the episodes that includes a letter presented last July before the control bodies of the party by Carolina Telechea, the one who was the number two of the parliamentary group in the previous legislature. It collects several situations that she suffered and others that she knows firsthand, all pointing out supposed abuse dispensed by Valugera to deputies and eventual personnel: constant faults of respect, screams, or reproaches by the organization of internal work to fit maternity and contempt permits in public for the work of companions. « I am not aware of having done what is said in the text, » Vallugera defends himself,
Several voices confirm some of the episodes contained in the document. Dantas, with medical reports, ensures that he still suffers physical and mental sequelae of the « labor violence » to which he was exposed. « ERC did not be careful of my mental and physical health, » laments the former deputy, after ensuring that the dome did nothing even though, he reiterated, he knew of the facts from 2020. Only until he discharged, in November 2023, The president of the party, Oriol Junquerasand the then general secretary, Marta Rovira, contacted him to be interested in his situation. Six months later, Telechea contributed his testimony within an investigation initiated by the Ethical Commission.
Vallugera, who had been a councilor in Barcelona, landed in Congress after the repetition of the 2019 general elections. He achieved an exit position on the lists thanks to the support of the largest ERC Federation, that of Barcelona. On the bench coincided with Dantas, which in turn entered the candidacy for the proposal of the Citizenship and Migrations of the party. In the distribution of functions, Vallugera was designated as a spokesman in the Equality Commission, with dantas carrying the LGTBI portfolio there. The group has always given broad margin to the deputies to defend the portfolios assigned to them. Several voices of the party certify the clash because of the ideological abyss against The trans law. “I didn't respect my work. He gave me feminism classes. One day even he even told me that things became different than in Brazil (where it is from), ”recalls Dantas, implying that there were xenophobic comments. « Pilar is like that, » it was a constant justification when he began to comment within the party his situation.
The anger climbed to the point where both Rufián and Telechea and Soldan had to intervene on several occasions, always value the great work done by both in different fields. “At least in my memory it has not been so. There have been political discussionswhich are the ones to have. Once I have lost, I have lost forgiveness, ”adds Vallugera. “I know that it is abuse and workplace harassment, because I have suffered it. And I haven't even harassed or mistreated, ”he adds.
Dantas requested twice to stop carrying the Trans Law to avoid confrontation with your partner. It was not the only one that reached that extreme. The current deputy Inés Granollers also asked to be relieved of her work with The Housing Lawsince Valugera allegedly belittled his knowledge about the subject in meetings with entities of the sector. He asked for « mental health. » Telechea also ensures that he witnessed how the work overload that would printed towards the technicians who attended him even derived in episodes such as finding them crying in the toilets. The promises of the direction of the parliamentary group to speak with the deputy and the creation of a manual of good labor practices, to fix the rest times and schedules, managed to calmly calm down the internal discomfort.
« I knew that the group's leadership was trying to solve it, » justifies dantas to reject at that time to follow the protocol of the party in cases of possible abuse. You can both send a complaint to the ethical channel – which is confidential – as raising it to the Ethics Committee, which is a political body that can suggest that infractions to the code of conduct of the party be investigated. Informally, says Telechea, the dome of the “destabilizing” factor of the Vallugera behavior was informed. Dantas did the same.
« There were many comments, as there were also on other people, but there was no complaint on which to act, » replies the former secretary of feminisms of ERC, Raquel Sans, who does accept that he met with dates to listen to his version of the facts later. Dantas's decision to leave ERC, in November 2023, raised the alarms in the dome of the party. So much that Rovira and Junqueras – « Oriol is the only one who has asked me for forgiveness for what happened » – they looked for him to address what happened and this resulted in investigations by the Ethical Commission. Telechea only had acknowledgment of receipt of his testimony last October. Both parties disconnect the facts with the internal division for the ERC Congress next week.
