Errejón’s departure represents a serious setback for Spain’s Sumar coalition, already weakened by declining help, and comes because the nation faces heightened consciousness in regards to the abuse of energy in public life.
Íñigo Errejón, a senior determine within the Spanish authorities’s junior coalition accomplice Sumar, is below investigation for alleged sexual abuse, officers confirmed on Friday following his sudden resignation.
Errejón, spokesperson for the leftist Sumar coalition, introduced his retirement from politics in a submit on X on Thursday, however didn’t straight deal with the allegations.
The accusations emerged after Spanish journalist Cristina Fallarás shared an nameless submit on Instagram wherein she accused a “well-known Madrid politician” of being concerned in “psychological abuse.”
Soon after Errejón’s resignation, actress Elisa Mouliaá publicly recognized him as her alleged attacker.
“I’m a sufferer of sexual harassment by Íñigo Errejón and I need to report it,” the actress wrote on X.
The Interior Ministry reported {that a} formal criticism had been filed in opposition to Errejón.
In Mouliaá’s police assertion, he described the occasions as having occurred in September 2021 throughout a personal assembly at a pal’s home.
According to the criticism, Errejón behaved violently and engaged in non-consensual contact, leaving the actress “paralyzed and unable to react.”
Domestic press claimed that in a dialog with Sumar’s management, he confessed to “machismo” – a time period utilized in Spain to explain poisonous masculinity, but additionally any type of undesirable conduct in opposition to girls.
In the submit asserting his resignation, Errejón made a veiled reference to the costs he’s going through. “The ideological wrestle can be a wrestle to construct higher methods of life and relationships: extra caring, extra supportive and due to this fact freer,” he mentioned.
Sumar’s disaster worsens as help declines
Sumar, a feminist-oriented platform, confronted a major decline in help in current elections, main celebration chief and deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz to step again from her management.
The coalition authorities, which already depends on help from smaller events, is now extra susceptible on this dispute, particularly as negotiations for this yr’s price range grow to be more and more advanced.
This scandal unfolds in opposition to the backdrop of Spain’s rising scrutiny of abuses of energy following final yr’s high-profile case involving Spanish girls’s nationwide soccer workforce president Luis Rubiales.
Errejón, who co-founded the far-left Podemos celebration earlier than forming Más País, now a part of Sumar, has been a distinguished political determine for greater than a decade. Sumar introduced an inner investigation following the allegations.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his help for the ladies victims of abuse by reaffirming his belief in Díaz and Sumar.
ANNOUNCEMENT“This is a really unlucky time, however we’ve got taken motion. This case is especially painful for a feminist authorities, however the hot button is the way you reply. As quickly because the state of affairs turned identified, Yolanda (Díaz) acted shortly and decisively,” Sánchez advised reporters.
Meanwhile, the favored opposition insisted that Díaz make clear when he realized of the accusations in opposition to Errejón, who had been thought-about a possible successor to Sumar’s management.
