'Monedero Case': The scandal that erodes the image of Podemos | Spain
A JUAN CARLOS ROOMSED He applauded Pablo Iglesias at the headquarters of the Ministry of Social Rights on January 13, 2020. From the seats of the main auditorium, the veteran Professor of Political Science of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) attended the inauguration of the new vice president of the Government, another much younger academic. Iglesias was a communicator who had emerged to the heat of 15-M and with which in the last six years he had shared a political and personal history that ran at a vertigo speed: the foundation of Podemos, His meteoric ascentthe imputations against party leaders, the Break in twothe electoral repetitions … that morning in which Iglesias assumed a high position of the first executive of coalition of democracy, purse was there, proud as the one that most, and continued to be one more time, despite the fact that he formally no longer held any position beyond his responsibilities at the head of the foundation linked to Podemos.
10 days have passed since the game admitted having known two accusations of harassment and sexual abuse within the formation against purse in September 2023, one of them written through a e-mail and the other transferred verbally. In the email sent to the Secretariat of Feminisms they described « grooves », « touch and back touching » or the « attempt to kiss a companion being drunk. » The Directorate (with the Secretary General, Ione Belarra, and the former Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, at the head) has defended since that Thursday, February 20 that « separated it » immediately and that, although the commission of guarantees – a logano in charge of opening the investigation – tried to contact the denunchers, they never answered and the investigations could not continue.
They justify that until before that date there was no record of any complaint, that only the victims corresponded to continue the process (and not to the party inquire on their own), and that since there was no resolution of said agency they could not either expel him from the Chat of the Directorate – the State Citizen Council, where he had no vote but did voice and participated as guest months later – or initiate the procedure to suspend it from militancy or prohibit him from entering acts. « We act when nobody looked » and « not by media pressure », to make Podemos « a safe space, » they have held in an allegation of his « commitment to feminist values ». On Monday, the last day that gave explanations about this matter, the secretary of Organization, Pablo Fernández, said they decided to stop « convening it », but never communicated it to him.
In social networks, leaders such as Belarra still exchanged some affectionate message with purse three months after the accusations arrived and this continued with its program on Channel Red, the television of Iglesias, until January 2024. In public and privately, its departure was justified and its resignation to the presidency of the Republic and Democracy Institute for political discrepancies linked to the strategy with adding and never knew of the complaints.
With the passing of the days, the Law of Silence has been imposed among former leaders, former high positions and politicians linked to Podemos in those early years. The country has tried to contact more than a dozen of them. Or they do not want They recognize « macho » and « invasive » attitudes. “The people who founded Podemos were their faculty companions (in reference to Iglesias, Carolina Bescansa, Luis Alegre and Íñigo Errejón). It was an uncomfortable person, annoying, with previous intolerable behavior, ”says a voice that questions the official version and adds: » Around monedo there has been great cynicism and protection, because he was a friend. «
“Juan Carlos's behavior (purse) is known and there are many testimonies that can accredit it. That has happened in many environments. Few are saved. To what degree it has been harassment or aggression, the victims will have to say. The red line is the complaint, ”says another profile linked in its day to political space.
Despite his almost always iron defense of Podemos (this Friday The political scientist wrote in X that « is not » his « task » that the left « divides and fights »), purse has always been a loose verse. In April 2015, the policy professor resigned as a constituent process secretary hours after criticizing the strategy of the party. It was his first and last organic position after the first assembly, but always continued as an authorized and respected voice inside, even received with applause from the militancy in many acts until years later. Similarly, he continued to intervene and attend his annual meetings, such as the Festival of the Spring of April 2023 in Zaragoza, where the complaints origin. Then, the executive was much less masculinized and with the Ministers Montero and Belarra in the lead, the organization had really managed to make feminism one of its flags. “When we talk about Podemos 2016, little colleagues and friends can point out. In any case they would have to sing the Mea guilt and even be proud of how they have evolved, ”acknowledges a source. Despite its proximity to the dome, Monedero never went on an electoral list, nor was they appointed public office.
After the outbreak of the crisis, the explanations of the leadership were immediate, but the party has not so far accredited with documents that resolved to « turn it away » and some weight voices put in doubt that it really was so. In eldiario.esnewspaper that published the complaint exclusively, the author of the mail defended this Thursday that she never received the e-mail of response (although the address has facilitated evidence of its existence), and censored that the game did not try to contact her.
The scandal touches the formation of the formation in a key issue for the party such as feminism, and still leaves questions in the air. Podemos has not clarified which people in particular made the decisions or who knew them. Nor was it possible to finally throw it from the communication channel of the State Citizen Council (CCE) for “leaks”, as Fernández acknowledged, but not in his day before harassment complaints. In addition, the hardness with which their leaders came against Yolanda Díaz for having allowed Íñigo Errejón to be a candidate in the generals and make a parliamentary spokesman to add when there was a complaint already in 2023 or its continuous pronouncements in other cases such as Luis Rubiales, former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Recently convicted of the Unconssencted kiss to footballer Jennifer Hermosothey contrast with lukewarmness in the explicit condemnation of the alleged purse acts.
The complaint at the University
The earthquake crossed the political sphere when, hours after we could admit that she knew those complaints, the Complutense said she had Open a file against purse for an internal complaint of a student for sexual harassment. The UCM, which has affirmed that it gives credibility to the story of the alleged victimis waiting for the service inspection to end the investigation to know its proposals: transfer the complaint to the Prosecutor's Office, impose a temporary sanction to the accused or file the case.
The accusations against the founder of Podemos have been fed this week with other testimonies in social networks and various media (old and current) of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology, where Monedero gives class, which alludes to what it was « Vox Populi« For years that the expolitic » tried to seduce « and harassed the students. In the midst of this tsunami, Monedero presented to the Faculty a work decline. The institution published a statement on Wednesday where it announced that the political scientist stopped teaching « until new notice » and that he was looking for a substitute.
The country has asked the university about the existence of other files against Monedero, but has not received an answer. The Complutense protocol, released in 2016, marks that the campus will publish the “data disaggregated by sex and gender on cases and interventions of the different facts of harassment”. But this information is not accessible on the UCM website, there are only several memories of the equality unit where no information about this type appears. This newspaper has requested these documents, with the interest of knowing how many teachers have been issued for sexually abusing or accusing the students, but the university has not facilitated them.
