Errejón I case: Machismo and debates raised

Complaints and resignation of Íñigo Errejón. Inconsistent partners and an affected government. The right and the extreme right in a campaign against the so-called “left”. The advances of the feminist struggle are not exempt from debates. Patriarchy and capitalism fall together.

First the complaints

Errejón's resignation moves foundations and puts the rotten structures of the regime on the table. The year passed 2023 when on social networka young woman reported touching by Errejón in a concert called “Tremendas femfest”, made in Castellón. Later the elections came and the scandal faded, until last week when a publication on the Instagram account of journalist Cristina Fallarás, collected testimonies of an episode of sexist violence, describing facts without giving names, starring“a well-known politician” Y“psychological abuser” towards women.

After the confirmations

The questions began to be clarified on Thursday afternoon when Errejón announced his resignation citing a “contradiction between the character and the person. As a corollary, The actress Elisa Mouliaá went to the Family and Women's Care Unit and reported Errejón for sexual harassment and assault in 2021, stating that she had not felt safe to report before.

Who until a few days ago presented himself as a great defender of feminism has given his own explanations: “the political exposition and The media generates a toxic subjectivity that, in the case of men, patriarchy multiplies., with colleagues and colleagues, with colleagues from the organization, with emotional relationships and even with oneself". And he stated that “had reached the limit of contradiction between character and person. Between a neoliberal way of life and being a spokesperson for an organization that defends a new world…” Errejón's self-evaluation seems like that of a victimizer who victimizes himself.

They did not act accordingly

The cynical Errejón filled his mouth in defense of a feminism that, obviously, I didn't practice. Without going too far, at 2023 and in relation to consent, Iñigo declared:  “I am concerned that at some point we will have to return to those trials in which it is the women who have to demonstrate how much they have resisted.”, because there are many forms of abuse and there are many forms of rape, that do not necessarily involve physical violence, and yet, not for that, are less serious”.

The current complaints raise an elementary question: Didn't his various political partners know anything??  Pablo Iglesias, with whom Errejón founded Podemos, has said that"I had neither a good personal nor a political opinion of Errejón..."and that he had warned Yolanda Díaz"But there were many victims who did not find a safe space to report".
For its part from Más Madrid, the party in which Errejón played before doing so in Sumar -led by Yolanda Díaz-, it was proposed that: "nobody, nor party position, nor militant, Not even a worker knew about the terrible accusations and complaints of aggression and mistreatment that we are hearing about." (…). contradictorily, They were forced to acknowledge that“they made a mistake” because they were aware of the events in Castellón, They talked about it with Errejón who minimized it and“The anonymous complaint was deleted from social networks”, before which they decided to shelve the matter.
The Más Madrid and Sumar organizations have entered into a strong credibility crisis and internal differences in Sumar have so far prevented the appointment of a replacement for former deputy and spokesperson Errejón.. It is a fact that the institutional reformers “champions of feminism” did not act accordingly to address the complaints, know the truth and act with equanimity.

Sánchez's government affected

Meanwhile, President Pedro Sánchez, questioned by the “Koldo plot” that once again exposes the corruption in the PSOE and the government, is also affected. This is because the “progressive” confluence of Sumar has been greatly affected., which, as we mentioned, was promoted by Yolanda Díaz, second vice president and minister of labor, who brought together twenty parties in the general elections of July 2023. Sánchez has declared that the legislature is going to run out despite the new crisis and that: “We have time ahead of us and we will see how the space on our left is articulated until 2027.”Díaz, is dedicated to the election of a new spokesperson amid internal disputes with IU and Podemos, while Sánchez thinks about articulating another space that surpasses Sumar.  

The opportunistic and lying right

A separate paragraph deserves the right and the extreme right of the PP and Vox, which are a trench of anti-feminism. Because, The fact of pointing out the government and its partners in the face of Errejón's attacks does not enable them to justify their reactionary positions against the women's movement.. The president of the PP takes advantage of the “Koldo plot” and the complaints against Errejón to deepen his campaign against the “left”. It is important to note that the PSOE, summer, more Country, The Commons and IU, just to mention some examples, They participate in bourgeois governments, They do not exceed the limits of the capitalist system or those of the '78 regime designed by Francoism., with which they are not truly leftist.  

Not in our name

The feminism that we defend leads to denouncing the attacks and abuses that women experience. Examples of this have been theMe Too, the #Niunamenos and the recent #SeAcabó of the Spanish soccer players. All these movements have managed to question those sexist behaviors that were previously considered "normal.", marking enormous progress.

Progress and discussions

The scandal of the Errejón case has reopened the exchange of opinions on issues that the feminist movement has been debating for a long time.: sexual violence, punitivism and the organization of the women's movement. In such cases, It is essential that complaints are investigated transparently and independently, without requiring victims to file a criminal complaint so that their words are taken seriously. The demands on networks"yes it's true, report it”They are unaware that victims have the right to choose whether they want to go to justice or not..

further, The method of anonymous reporting on networks raises a new question. Is this method safe or does it lend itself to manipulations that can turn against the women themselves?? On the other hand, trusting in patriarchal justice does not provide any guarantee, as shown by recent cases of feminist activists persecuted for demonstrating. The final question is whether it is possible to confront patriarchy only from the networks or with judicial complaints., or if it is necessary for the feminist movement to recover mobilization in the streets.

Patriarchy and capitalism fall together

Anti-capitalist feminism combats gender oppression and at the same time questions the foundations of the capitalist system that perpetuates exploitation and inequalities.. We do not place confidence in the “lefts” that remain within the limits of the regime or in the patriarchal justice that sustains it.. The fundamental thing is to protect the victims, that it be investigated impartially and there be no impunity, for which, The central thing is mobilization and not the twists and turns of institutionality.

further, political conclusions must be drawn about: the dimension of the abuse of power in the bourgeois superstructure, the intrinsic formality, the limitations of “progressive” reformism that moves within the capitalist system and the '78 regime and that the consistent defense of women's rights involves the mobilization and defense of class feminism, anti patriarchal and anti capitalist, that unites their demands with those of the working class and with socialist alternatives, revolutionaries and internationalists who confront the right without falling into the traps of the “lesser evil” of the reformists.