Julio Iglesias has decided to take Yolanda Díaz to court. The lawsuit, filed with the support of lawyer José Antonio Choclán, requests a conciliation hearing in which Díaz "acknowledges the damage caused" and retracts the statements she made both on social media and in the press. The Spanish vice president condemned on TVE thesexual assaults for which the singer is being investigated And she called for "decisive action": she expressed her support for withdrawing Iglesias' medals because she asserted that his behavior "requires exemplary action." "Criminal responsibility is one thing, and ethical responsibility is another," she explained, adding that the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, would soon make a decision regarding the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. Yolanda Díaz, for her part, reacted to the singer's lawsuit through BlueSky and declared: "With or without lawsuits, women will no longer be silent." "I defend working women against anyone who violates their integrity and their rights, and I will not stop doing so," the Vice President asserted.

The Prosecutor's office files complaint The lawyer for the author of the lawsuit filed by two female employees against singer Julio Iglesias for sexual assault argued that they should first have filed their complaint in the countries where the alleged events occurred. Only if the case had been dismissed there would they have had the right to file it in Spain. Hey, we read in the ARA, "accused the two victims of filing the complaint in Spain to achieve greater 'media impact'."

Prosecutor's Office knocks on the door complaint filed by two former employees A lawsuit has been filed against Julio Iglesias—through the international human rights organization Women's Link—for the alleged crimes of human trafficking, sexual assault, harassment, physical abuse, and breach of employment duties. The deputy prosecutor of the National Court, Marta Durántez, aligns herself with the arguments of his defense attorney, José Antonio Choclán, who argued that Spanish courts lack jurisdiction and concluded that it is "not Spain's responsibility" to investigate the events, which occurred in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. "There is no reason not to initiate the corresponding criminal proceedings [there]," he argues. In other words, they should have first filed a complaint in the countries where the alleged crimes took place, and if the case had been dismissed there, and a "real impossibility or lack of will" to investigate had been established, they would have had the option of going to Spain to try. The singer's lawyer accused the two victims of filing the complaint in Spain to achieve "greater media impact."

Julio Iglesias has taken another step in his battle to defend himself of the accusations of harassment and sexual assault by two former employees. The singer has published alleged private messages from the accusers sent via WhatsApp, which, in his opinion, prove his innocence. Through Instagram, Iglesias posted messages from two women—without concealing their identities—who worked in his home between 2021 and 2022. "The evidence is clear: the WhatsApp communications sent by the accusers during the time they worked in my house and the communications after they left, prove it."

Last week, Julio Iglesias' public image was deeply shaken by the revelation of a case of alleged sexual violenceIf the accusations are confirmed in court, the narrative that has surrounded the singer for decades would collapse, giving way to a much darker figure: that of a true sexual predator. A man who has been out of the public eye for years, but who in the eighties and nineties was a leading male role model. This fact compels us not only to examine the specific events, but also to question the sociocultural framework that sustained, normalized, and even celebrated this figure. And, within that framework, to understand the extent to which fashion acted as a decisive ally in constructing a sex symbol friendly, relaxed, and seemingly harmless.

One of the media fallouts of the Julio Iglesias case has been the appearance of all sorts of his friends defending him on television. Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are. The array of personalities and their contributions have served to confirm the scale of values and the retrograde ideology surrounding the singer. On Tuesday, Ana Obregón caused secondhand embarrassment by developing theories that exposed her ignorance and frivolity. She used the most lurid details denouncing the sexual exploitation of women to refute them through her personal experience. For example, she considered it impossible that the singer had abused women because she had eaten fried eggs with chips in Julio Iglesias's kitchen, and the Dominican cook sat at the table with them, and the singer treated her with great cordiality. The following day, Ramón Arcusa of Dúo Dinámico finished the job, asserting that Julio Iglesias's sexual relations with his employees were consensual because they occurred regularly. Among other absurdities, he showed off his investigative skills and declared that the complainants were lying because they explained that he forced them to consume tequila, and the member of Duo Dinámico said that he had never seen this drink at Julio Iglesias's house.Julio does have some very good wines, though. He has some excellent wines. But there's no tequila in his house; I've never seen it there."Case closed, Ramón.

In Handmaids of globalization (Icària, 2024), Gabriela Poblet, PhD in social and cultural anthropology, director of Europe Without Walls and currently a professor at the University of Valladolid, examines domestic service in Spain and Catalonia through interviews with women who work as live-in caregivers for the elderly or children. Today, they are primarily women from Latin America, many awaiting residency permits, who have migrated alone and are facing challenges. It is very difficult to escape abusive situations and claim rightsWith the complaints of sexual assault, harassment, and workplace abuse from two former employees of Julio Iglesias' mansionsThe Poblet experience serves to highlight the conditions in which these women work.

Like Julio Iglesias, like the emeritus king, he is a Spaniard who, simply by virtue of being Spanish, has a right to a thigh, and there are many personalities, such as Santiago Abascal and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who have come out to defend him. Complaining about Julio Iglesias or the king is complaining about Spain. And that's unacceptable.

Julio Iglesias breaks his silence and denies everything. The singer published a statement early this morning on his Instagram account in which he asserts that he has not "abused, coerced, or disrespected any woman." "These accusations are absolutely false and cause me great sadness," he says in a three-paragraph text, in which he presents himself as a victim and states that he "has never felt such malice."

These days, everyone's talking about Julio Iglesias, unless he's Spanish (in which case, the blame falls on Pedro Sánchez's wife). He's labeled a "sexual predator," like Jeffrey Epstein, or a "seducer" who went around the world "sleeping around," unable to help himself.

I must confess my deep envy of men's football fans. I feel it much less for women's football fans, because although it's generating more interest now, it doesn't occupy the same space. Let's not kid ourselves. I envy them because their entertainment, or their religion, I dare say, occupies many prominent spots in radio and television programming, and above all because, when it becomes news considered relevant, everything else is set aside and that topic is treated as if nothing else were happening in the world. If you're not interested in football, you can't believe the amount of time that can be spent discussing topics you wouldn't dedicate more than zero or a minute to. But what I envy is that in weeks like this one, full of terrible news for the world, or like the previous one, also filled with bad news, football fans are able to abstract themselves from this reality, prioritizing the fact that there's been a change of coach or a good result in a match. For those who are always overreacting, and I'm never sure if they understand what I write, I'll add that I know you might like football and be worried about the world political situation. But the football fans They have this refuge where everything that happens is important, even if its relevance is debatable. And it's not snobbishness that makes me uninterested in football. At another time in my life, I used it as a sedative. But it's like other things I've tried that haven't quite grabbed me, like mushroom hunting or spending the summer at the beach. However, I'm not reading books while everyone else is watching a football match. Or not always, in any case. It's possible that while I'm listening to the fans' shouts, I'm watching a bad TV series or talking about other trivial matters in the kitchen.

The scandal surrounding the allegations made by two domestic workers against Julio Iglesias has erupted. The media is abuzz with the story, and I was stunned when, on Ana Rosa's program, Ramón Arcusa—a friend of the singer, musician, and member of the duo Dúo Dinámico—stated that if a woman is raped, she should immediately report the crime and leave the house or wherever the rapist is: if she doesn't leave, it means she did. He also commented that all the accusations being made against Julio Iglesias before the courts have even ruled are coming from within the industry. woke of society. Without a second thought, she has linked the sexual assault allegations to an ideology and, in turn, has quickly politicized it. Amazing!

Julio Iglesias' first public words after the sexual assault allegations revealed by Eldiario.es and Univision have been in the magazine HelloThe singer has spoken to the newspaper He has said he is preparing his defense and that "everything will be clarified." According to the magazine, Iglesias "wants to get to the bottom of the matter and leave no doubt about the true circumstances of what happened and the real account of the events." The publication has also spoken with people close to the artist, who, in private statements, "completely deny the allegations."

"The thing is, I'm very shy and sometimes it seems like I treat women badly. I don't mean to be rude, but sometimes I'm abrupt. It's nothing serious. Perhaps that old Spanish saying is ingrained in me: 'A woman should be treated like a whore, and a whore like a lady,'" Julio Iglesias wrote in Between heaven and hellThe autobiography, published by Planeta in 1981, when the singer was 37 and enjoying great success in the United States.

The three alleged crimes attributed to singer Julio Iglesias before the National Court Prosecutor's Office are: human trafficking for the purposes of forced labor and servitude; harassment and sexual assault with aggravated injuries; and crimes against labor rights. Lawyers from the international human rights organization Women's Link, which represents the complainants in the Julio Iglesias case, detailed this Wednesday in a virtual press conference the legal grounds on which they brought the case to the attention of the National Court Prosecutor's Office in Madrid on January 5. The Prosecutor's Office has opened preliminary proceedings to determine whether to pursue criminal charges, should it find evidence of a crime and have jurisdiction to do so. The lawyers have opted for the Prosecutor's Office to exercise its investigative capacity and authority, which would determine the specific crimes; however, if this does not proceed, the complainants could choose to file a private prosecution.

Julio Iglesias, besides being a renowned international artist, is not an ideologically neutral figure. On February 29, 1996, four days before the general elections, the singer appeared alongside José María Aznar in a packed bullring in Zaragoza, where he was greeted with euphoria. There, Iglesias explained that he had decided to take the step of becoming politically involved for the first time because "a country never grows without change," he said, referring to the thirteen years that Spain had been governed by Felipe González. "There will be no better president for Spain than José María Aznar!" he proclaimed after explaining that he had had long conversations with the leader of the People's Party (PP) before taking this step.

The so-called culture wars are a propaganda tool originally used by the right to impose revisionist, or denialist, versions of major historical events, primarily from the 20th century: the Holocaust, for example, or the Spanish Civil War. It quickly became automatic, however, and every more or less shocking news story generates its own culture war or guerrilla warfare. There are so many that they often operate through juxtaposition or disorderly accumulation. This week's menu of culture wars features Iran and Julio Iglesias. The fact that simply putting them together provokes a kind of stupefaction, or a kind of stasis, is part of the very mechanism of culture wars, which, to function, need above all to elicit visceral reactions.

The impact of the investigation into the sexual abuse of Julio Iglesias published by Eldiario.es And Univision turned its television programming upside down. Regular broadcasts dwelled on the details of the journalistic work and the allegations, and at night Telecinco and La Sexta aired special programs to delve deeper into the case.

The scandal of the sexual assault allegations against Julio Iglesias, already investigated by the Prosecutor's Office of the National CourtThe revelations have shaken state politics. Reactions to the published information have ranged from the absolute condemnation by Sumar—which is already demanding the removal of the singer's medals—to the defense of Iglesias by the most conservative wing of the PP, led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso. But for the Popular Party, it is an uncomfortable issue, and the position is not unanimous. The party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has supported the ongoing investigations: "The allegations are very serious," he acknowledged on Telecinco. Feijóo thus distanced himself from the Madrid president, who on Tuesday, in a tweet, downplayed the allegations of Iglesias's former employees—"The raped women are in Iran," she wrote—and said that the Community of Madrid "will never contribute to the discrediting [...] The leader of his own party, on the contrary, confessed to being "very, very surprised" by the information revealed by Eldiario.es and Univision News and has supported the ongoing investigations: he said that "it is important to know if this [the assaults and abuses] is true."

It's sad to read the witnesses of the women who denounce the alleged abuses of Julio Iglesias published by Eldiario.es and not feel surprised, that the events explained are perfectly plausible, that they don't surprise us in the slightest. Which doesn't prevent, of course, the shock caused by some chilling details about the system of exploitation to which he subjected his victims. We could have easily deduced, from how he spoke of the ladies and how he treated them in public, that the Latin lover He was, in reality, an unscrupulous predator. But that's how these inveterate seducers are; they can't help it. They have such sexual prowess that they have to go around the world sleeping with anyone who crosses their path. It was one of the things the singer was admired for worldwide: for being a conqueror without anyone questioning what his conquests thought. And what must they have thought? What an honor, what a privilege to be chosen by a man who could have them all, with success, money, and power. What could they say, barely reached adulthood, when, in the middle of an interview, he made comments about their appearance, asked them if they had a boyfriend, or planted a kiss right on their lips? With the scandal of the accusations, television networks have compiled the most shocking moments of the man, because they constitute outright assaults committed live before an audience that laughs, applauds, and celebrates this normalized violence. Who could say a word if he was like that? You know, men. Seeing the images of kisses reminded me of all the disgusting strangers, the flexibility women's necks acquire from doing the cobra, all the strategies we've had to adopt to avoid those who think they're good lovers when they don't have the slightest idea what good sex means, which always begins with...