Who is Paco Salazar, the candidate to be the interlocutor with Juntos, removed from the PSOE?

Madrid / BarcelonaThe federal committee of the PSOE that was to ratify the changes proposed by Pedro Sánchez The Cerdán case has been marked by another fire for the Socialist leader. Several women have reported "inappropriate behavior" by one of the people who was supposed to be part of the party's new organizational area, Paco Salazar, according to information published by eldiario.es. He has been provisionally removed from the Socialist executive and from the Moncloa, where he served as Secretary General for Institutional Coordination. A person of Sánchez's utmost confidence, he was one of the possible candidates to be the new interlocutor with Junts after Cerdán's departure.

Sources familiar with the talks between the PSOE and Carles Puigdemont's party explain to ARA that the only conditions the pro-independence parties put forward were that it be a person of Sánchez's utmost confidence, with a direct line to the Council of Ministers, so that whatever was agreed upon in law with the Spanish government, however it might suffer, after finding its own for his country, would not later have jurisdiction over immigration. Also, that it not be from the PSC. With this approach, beyond the role played by former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the PSOE had put Salazar's name on the table, an option now ruled out. The Moncloa has not confirmed the proposal and assumes that the person appointed will be the new secretary of the party's organization, Rebeca Torró, Cerdán's successor in the organic position.

Salazar arrived at the Moncloa with Sánchez in June 2018. At that time, he was appointed director of analysis and studies for the cabinet of the presidency of the Spanish government when Iván Redondo served as chief of staff. He was one of those affected by the reshuffle of the executive in 2021, precisely when former minister José Luis Ábalos left, but he returned to the Moncloa a year later as secretary general of political planning. Later, withDiego Rubio's arrival to the presidential cabinet He became Secretary General of Institutional Coordination, also tasked with maintaining a good connection between the Moncloa and the PSOE.

A member of Congress for Seville between 2019 and 2023, this agricultural technical engineer joined the PSOE in the early 1990s and later earned a degree in political science. His career is linked to political strategy behind the scenes, in the engine room, and despite being one of Sánchez's main collaborators since he won the PSOE primaries against Susana Díaz, he is not a familiar face to the general public. He was Secretary of Electoral Action in the Socialist executive.

There are no internal complaints.

"The General Secretariat of the Presidency has launched the established mechanisms to clarify the facts revealed this morning and determine whether it is appropriate to activate the protocol for action against sexual and gender-based harassment, as established by the General State Administration," stated sources from the Moncloa Palace, who also added that so far. "The federal executive committee will initiate proceedings immediately, although the PSOE has not recorded any complaints in this regard through any of the authorized channels," stated sources from the PSOE.

Thus, Salazar's departure from the Socialist executive means that, for the moment, the new, reinforced organizational area envisioned by Pedro Sánchez will be reduced to three people instead of four. Rebeca Torró will be the secretary, and the deputies will be Anabel Mateos and Borja Cabezón, who were initially scheduled to be two of the three deputies with Salazar. Torró will assume the electoral action functions that Salazar was supposed to perform.