Errejón has not responded at length in public to the allegations, except for an obliquely worded resignation letter in which he admitted to “mistakes” and warned that in front-line politics there was “a toxic subjectivity which in the case of men is amplified by the patriarchy.” However, the affair is seen as damaging to the strident brand of feminism which the Sánchez government has promoted.
Errejón, 40, was one of the most prominent figures of the new left that emerged a decade ago to challenge Spain’s traditional political powers. A co-founder of the far-left Podemos, his parliamentary skills and political nous were seen as key to the party’s early rise. He later formed Más Madrid, which in turn became part of Sumar, a broad platform of parties to the left of Sánchez’s Socialists.
“This scandal could be a fatal blow for Sumar as a brand and an organization,” Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Carlos III University, said.
“This creates a lot of very uncomfortable questions for Sumar,” he added. “Was this known about before? If it was, why was nothing done about it?”
Both Sumar and Más Madrid, which have placed feminist issues at the center of Spanish politics, have been scrambling to answer such questions.
“If I had known about such serious actions previously, I would have acted just the same way I have done,” said Yolanda Díaz, who is a deputy prime minister, labor minister and the de facto leader of Sumar.
