Sexual assault allegations stun Spanish left-wing coalition partner – POLITICO

Errejón did not publicly respond at length to the allegations, other than an obliquely worded resignation letter in which he acknowledged “mistakes” and warned of a “toxic subjectivity in front-line politics that becomes even stronger when it comes to men.” patriarchy.” However, this incident appears to have damaged the hard-line feminism promoted by the Sánchez government.

Errejón, 40, was one of the key figures of the new left that emerged a decade ago to challenge Spain’s traditional political powers. A co-founder of the far-left Podemos, his parliamentary skills and political acumen were seen as key to the party’s early rise. He later founded Más Madrid, which became part of Sumar, a broad party platform to the left of Sánchez’s Socialists.

“This scandal could be a fatal blow for Sumar as a brand and organization,” said Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Carlos III University.

“This raises a lot of troubling questions for Sumar,” he added. “Was this known before? If so, why wasn’t anything done about it?”

Placing feminist issues at the center of Spanish politics, Sumar and Más Madrid strive to answer such questions.

“If I had known about such serious actions before, I would have acted the same way,” said Yolanda Díaz, deputy prime minister, labor minister and de facto leader of Sumar.