Monedero participated in Podemos' decisions after the first complaints

The defense strategy that Podemos established on Thursday to weather the storm caused by the accusations of sexual violence that have been coming to light against Juan Carlos Monedero cracked noticeably yesterday with the new revelations about the alleged sexist excesses of the person who was a key player in the construction of the purple party. And both the “diligence” with which they claim to have acted, as well as the rotundity with which they maintain that “he was not invited to the public and private activities” of the project are, at the very least, in question.

After the existence of two complaints of sexual violence against Monedero came to light in September 2023, Podemos quickly responded by claiming that it “acted from the first minute” by choosing to “immediately remove” the political scientist from “any activity.”

Sumar avoids clash with the purples and asks that the complaints be investigated “as necessary”

But new testimonies released by elDiario.es , which refer to the “groping” and “touching” of the accused, indicate that the leadership of the purple party knew about the conduct of the person who was their number two long before. Specifically, since 2016.

Despite this, the general secretary, Ione Belarra, justified the actions of the leadership yesterday, arguing that “it cannot act in the name of the victims or usurp their capacity.” “I understand that there is a lot of interest in saying that Podemos always does everything wrong, but Podemos acted diligently. We did what we had to do to guarantee that our organization is a safe space for women. Monedero was no longer invited to all activities. This can be verified by anyone,” she said with some discomfort from Congress.

The same was done by MEP Irene Montero, who argued on Canal Red that “action was taken” from the moment the testimonies of sexual violence became known.

But the truth is that the newspaper archive questions this alleged "diligence." First, because Monedero was seated in the front row of a Podemos event held on September 16, 2023, five days after the party received the first sexual complaint.

Then, because Belarra herself publicly exonerated the Political Science professor on January 29, 2024 when, via Twitter and along with a purple heart emoji, she described as “indecency” the “circulation of hoaxes about an alleged internal file” against Monedero, when he had supposedly been removed four months earlier.

And finally, because, as La Sexta revealed, there are screenshots of the Telegram groups of the Podemos state citizen council that show that the party's co-founder continued to participate in December 2023, and as an authoritative voice, in the decisions of the top management, when publicly his involvement was reduced to that of a simple grassroots supporter.

The changes in dates and the testimonies – some of them collected by La Vanguardia – which claim that the Podemos leadership knew about the misdeeds of its former number two since before 2023, because they were “an open secret”, draw certain parallels between the cases of Monedero and Errejón.

Yesterday, Sumar chose to avoid the clash, limiting itself to expressing its “solidarity with the victims” and demanding that the complaints be investigated “as necessary.” But Podemos did not. And, in an attempt to nip the aforementioned parallels in the bud, Belarra insisted one last time that they acted correctly with Monedero, while Díaz’s party did not, because they made “Errejón a parliamentary spokesperson when there was already an anonymous complaint on social media against him for alleged touching.”