Ramon Flecha and his successor as director of CREA, also professor of sociology Marta Soler, sued the newspaper ARA in 2020 over the article "A research group at UB is accused of acting like a cult", published by this newspaper five years earlier. However, and despite the news of the dismissal of the lawsuits also being published, Flecha and Soler alleged that ARA had constructed a "completely false narrative" and that the article constituted a "serious and intense violation of the right to honor." In 2022, Flecha and Soler sued Ara Balears and demanded 30,000 euros for "moral damages" for having published the article.
Education
The IEC wants to disassociate itself from the professor accused of harassment Ramon Flecha and his research group
The permanent council of the entity proposes to dismiss the directive of the Catalan Association of Sociology and withdraw an award from the professor
10/04/2026
2 min
BarcelonaThe Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC) is taking action to distance itself from the professor and founder of the controversial research group CREA, Ramon Flecha, who has been reported for sexual and power harassment. The entity's permanent council has proposed to the assembly the dismissal of the board of directors of the Catalan Association of Sociology (ACS), "dominated since 2017 by members of the CREA group", and the withdrawal of the 2019 Catalonia Sociology Award from Flecha, as the institution has reported in a statement.
The proposal, made by the governing council of the Section of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the IEC – to which the ACS is attached – and which the permanent council has assumed, is based on the results of an internal investigation and starts from the fact that the CREA group "has been the subject of an investigation by the University of Barcelona (UB), which has forwarded it to the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Barcelona, for serious conduct of gender violence and institutional harassment, which may constitute a crime".
after the University of Barcelona brought the case back to the public prosecutor's office.
What is proposed to the IEC assembly, therefore, is to dismiss the current board and elect another provisional one with the task of preparing a reform of the ACS statutes within a maximum period of six months. The permanent council also proposes to withdraw from Ramon Flecha the Catalonia Sociology Award that was granted to him in 2019 for "the modification of the bases made by the award jury in favor of his candidacy".
The permanent council has made the decision while the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office investigates the complaints for alleged conduct of sexual harassment, psychological coercion, mistreatment and exploitation linked to the professor and the environment of his research group, which was dissolved at the end of last year after the University of Barcelona once again brought the case to the public prosecutor's office.
CREA's lawsuit against ARA
