Junqueras removes the president of the ERC party in Valencia, pending trial for sexual harassment.

BarcelonaThe ERC executive has decided to remove the party's president in the Valencian Country, Josep Barberà, following the ongoing oral trial. for alleged sexual harassment of Maria Pérez Company, former general secretary of the party. According to ARA, the board made the decision at this afternoon's meeting after assessing the conclusions of the compliance that the new compliance officer, Lluís Mombiela, had reopened on the matter. The argument is that the party's statutes stipulate the suspension of membership if a member has an open lawsuit. The executive has also decided to replace the current leadership with a management committee and call another congress in a "short period of time," according to sources within the leadership consulted.

However, sources close to Josep Barberà criticize the decision to remove him, but also to appoint a management committee because they consider it a "coup d'état" and another "Junqueras purge." In a statement made public this Tuesday in X, Barberà denounces the imposition of a management committee and not leaving the party in the hands of the general secretary, and compares it to Junqueras' resignation last June.

The same sources close to Barberà assure that the argument for suspending the current president of the Valencian Republicans from membership is not valid because the case is still in the investigation phase and the statutes stipulate that the suspension must be carried out when "a resolution to open oral proceedings has been issued." In this sense, they warn that Barberà's defense will take legal action against the party.

In the new report from the compliance, to which ARA has had access, details that the judge has declared "the investigation closed" and has ordered it to continue through the "abbreviated procedure due to reasonable indications of a crime." "This ruling leads us to an almost certain and imminent oral trial," it adds. In the text, the current head of compliance amends the investigation conducted by his predecessor, Xavier Mombiela. He considers that there was "malpractice in the initial handling of the situation" and attributes it to "haste, inexperience, or ignorance," without ruling out, he says, "that it was intentional."

The formation re-elected Barberà as president of ERC in the Valencian Community at the congress they held in October of last year. It was a very close vote, in which the Benicarló politician beat former organization secretary and Faura councilor Domènec Garcia by 8 votes (75-67). Barberà was considered close to Marta Rovira, while the latter was the candidate Junqueras supported. In fact, that congress also impacted the internal primaries campaign the party was engaged in at the national level: the Junqueras supporters withdrew a statement criticizing Rovira's leadership for allowing Barberà to stand as a candidate despite a legal case for harassment.

A preliminary investigation that comes to nothing

A year earlier, the current president of ERC in Valencia had already been removed from office following Pérez Company's complaint. Following this case, the Valencian Republicans underwent a year-long interim process, also amidst significant internal divisions: The party was left in the hands of a management team and two congresses were suspended.On March 14 of last year, the Alzira court for violence against women admitted Pérez Company's complaint. This judicial process began shortly after the ERC Ethics and Compliance Committee closed a previous internal investigation because it considered there was insufficient evidence to prove the facts and that the witnesses who participated had presented "ambiguities and contradictions." The Guarantees Committee confirmed these conclusions. Thus, Barberà became a member again and ran for the party's presidency again. When Junqueras returned to the presidency of Esquerra, the case was reopened internally.

Maria Pérez Company herself had criticized the party for closing the first internal investigation. "The channels Esquerra has don't work. There is arbitrariness, inaction, and contempt," she asserted. "Hippocrates," she said on March 8, referring to the Republicans.