A former PP councilor accuses the party of pressuring her not to report the mayor of Móstoles for harassment.
The woman claims she wrote to Ayuso and met with her right-hand man, but no internal investigation was opened.
BarcelonaThe People's Party (PP) of Madrid pressured a female councilor from the party in Móstoles not to report the town's mayor, Manuel Bautista, for sexual and workplace harassment, according to a report. The CountryThe newspaper has obtained a copy of the complaint the woman filed with the PP's national committee on rights and guarantees, in which she explains the events and details six attempts to seek support from her party. All was in vain, she says. The party claims it opened an internal investigation but closed it due to a "lack of evidence." The councilwoman ended up resigning from the party and leaving politics, while Bautista remains mayor.
It was in February 2024 that the woman first sought the party's support. She wrote a letter directly to the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, requesting a meeting. "Since May 2023, I have suffered very serious discrimination that has not stopped and is increasing," she wrote. However, the president's team referred her to the secretary general of the PP of Madrid and Ayuso's right-hand man, Alfonso Serrano, and to the party's deputy secretary of organization, Ana Millán. According to the account, it was they who tried to dissuade her from filing a possible complaint.
"The party's protection is meant to make you stop thinking about filing any kind of complaint," Millán allegedly told her in a meeting where all three were present, according to the documents published this Tuesday. "What can we do? There's no point in coming here to explain this situation without proposing a solution," Serrano, who is also a member of the Madrid Assembly and a senator, allegedly added. "It's not a matter of covering it up [...] it's that a public or legal complaint would affect you," he also told her, according to the former councilwoman, who quotes another response from Millán in a second meeting: "We all put up with a lot."
The woman, who has asked The Country Maintaining her anonymity, she describes in her complaint sexually explicit comments from the mayor, references to her physical appearance, and explicit propositions, and also that he spread the rumor that they had had sexual relations. When she stood up to this behavior, she explains, the workplace harassment began: her work was made invisible, she was not allowed to speak at plenary sessions, and she was excluded from official events. She finally resigned from her position and left the party in October 2024.
The PSOE calls for resignations
The news broke on the same day that Francisco Salazar, the former director of analysis and studies for the Spanish Prime Minister's office, was arrested. He resigned from his positions at Moncloa Palace and in the PSOE. After being accused of sexual harassment, he appeared before the Senate's Koldo case committee at the request of the PP.
This explains the swift reaction the Socialists have already had following the publication in The Country"We acted immediately. The People's Party does the exact opposite: it covers it up," the party stated in a message to X. "If they applied their own standards, they should all resign, including the mayor of Móstoles," it added.
The party led by Pedro Sánchez has called on Alberto Núñez Feijóo to "provide immediate explanations" and take action within the party. "The Madrid PP knew about an accusation of harassment and covered it up," Socialist sources claim. "This isn't protection: it's intimidation and imposed silence," they insist, adding that, according to the criteria the conservatives use with the PSOE, Ayuso, Serrano, and Millán—whom they remind us is also under investigation for corruption—should submit.
The PSOE refers to the right-wing attacks after theavalanche of reports of harassment cases have emerged within the socialist ranks In recent months, starting with the Salazar case, and the criticism—including internal criticism—of the way the party has handled the situation, the Socialists now argue that "feminism is not [...] a slogan used when convenient. It is legislation, public resources, and a sustained commitment over time. That is what the PSOE has done for decades."
