The left still does not know the price it will pay for Errejón’s injury

The most used word these days is ‘shock’. ‘Shock’ from the leaders of Más Madrid and Sumar. ‘Shock’ of the militants of both formations. ‘Shock’ of his voters. ‘Shock’ by Manuela Carmena, who allied with Íñigo Errejón to continue in the mayor’s office. ‘Shock’ of the socialists who lack fingers on their hands to tell the bad news for the Government. The shadow of Errejón looms over everyone. He is already history. The political consequences of their actions, far from it.

“We have been in ‘shock’ for days,” said Minister Mónica García in the press conference on Monday that she gave together with Manuela Bergerot and Rita Maestre. The main leaders of Más Madrid could not wait any longer without coming forward to try to explain how a party that champions feminist values ​​could have someone like Errejón, who on the other hand was the founder of the party, within its ranks. He was no longer the party’s political reference in Madrid, nor did leaders like García or Bergerot pay much attention to him. Even so, it is no excuse and the three had the detail of not highlighting it to the journalists.

In addition to declaring themselves “devastated” by events that García called “absolutely repulsive cases,” García, Bergerot and Maestre had to explain what they did when they learned of an incident involving Errejón at a concert in Castellón in June 2023. Or rather, what not. they did. They didn’t contribute much more than what is already known. There they directly targeted Loreto Arenillas, a member of the Madrid Assembly, who they said had intervened “behind the party’s back” by contacting the woman who made an anonymous complaint on Twitter. They later ordered him to inform the complainant that the party could provide support, but they did not receive any further information about the case.

“We couldn’t or didn’t know how to do anything else and now we see that it was a mistake,” García said. They justified it with the argument that “the two (Errejón and Arenillas) minimized the aggression,” in Bergerot’s expression.

Arenillas responded shortly after denying the accusation. He said in a statement that he never covered up any case of abuse and that he brought everything related to the Castellón case “to the attention” of Bergerot and another leader. “The party leadership did not consider the facts relevant to raise them to higher bodies, nor make them public, nor activate the procedures established in our statutes and internal rules,” alleges the deputy.

The three of them showed integrity – on the other hand, it is the least they could do –, especially Rita Maestre, who had a romantic relationship with Errejón years ago. He has now learned that two of the complaints refer to a time when the two were dating. The feeling of personal betrayal must be immense. The spokesperson for Más Madrid in the Madrid City Council denied that she could be accused of any type of cover-up: “Now the expression ‘everyone knew’ or everyone covered it up is spread frivolously on networks. I didn’t know it. Nobody knew.” Mónica García said the same thing, emphasizing the word ‘nobody’.

Is it enough to apologize and claim that nothing was known about Errejón’s worst examples of behavior, now visible to the entire world? That will depend on the credibility of each of the people who speak on behalf of the party. His rivals on the left and right will remind him frequently.

There is something they did know. “We thought that (Errejón) had personal problems that were of a different nature,” García said without specifying what he was talking about. Shortly after, he insisted: “If we had known that he was an aggressor, we would not have recommended professional help. “We would have gone to the police station.” In his farewell statement, Errejón said that he was receiving “psychological support.” It is not one of the worst euphemisms that appear in the text.

The political relevance of this data implicates Sumar. If in mid-2023 Errejón was undergoing therapy for his addiction to sex or whatever, or for any other issue related to mental health, the decision to appoint him spokesperson for Sumar’s group in Congress six months later was so reckless as to that it be considered an incomprehensible error. That is in the event that Más Madrid’s recommendation that he seek “professional help” was on those dates, because the party did not want to specify when it occurred. In times of emergency, transparency always has limits.

The call had a funereal air with an optimistic parenthesis. Maestre highlighted the value of the rapid response that ended Errejón’s career, implying that this would not have happened years ago: “Feminism has managed to ensure that a leading politician has fallen in 48 hours without anyone trying to cover it up.” . If that’s true, it’s surprising that there are so many left-wing people looking depressed.

It was exactly the same thing that Yolanda Díaz said in the afternoon in Congress. He stressed that never before has there been a reaction so quickly to an event of these characteristics as was done last week and that it has been demonstrated “that there is no impunity” for sexist behavior. “If I had known about such serious events before, I would have reacted the same,” he said at a press conference. That is, I would not have included him in the July 2023 candidates and he would not have been a deputy or spokesperson for Sumar.

What I did know before was the confirmation that Errejón had serious problems. “What I know about Íñigo Errejón is that he was going to therapy and I know that in the last year he was getting better,” he explained, but without saying what type of therapy. It must be deduced from the aforementioned deadlines that he was included in Sumar’s lists in 2023 and appointed spokesperson for the parliamentary group knowing that he had those psychological problems mentioned.

In relation to the anonymous complaint from 2023, Díaz stated that he had spoken about the issue with Ione Belarra, leader of Podemos, and leaders of Más Madrid. Apparently, not with Errejón, from what he said, as he did a few days ago. “My team was informed from Más Madrid that the investigation had been closed and that the complainant had removed the tweet.” And that’s supposedly where it all ended. Removing Errejón from the lists – Podemos said on Monday that this is what it demanded – would have helped prevent the scandal from breaking out a year later in the most damaging way for Sumar.

Díaz repeated an idea used by Mónica García in the morning. “I would like to tell you that we have found the magic formula. “We don’t have it,” said the vice president. Therefore, no resignations or high-impact initiatives are expected. They have to take the hit and assume the discredit that a “predator”, as Rita Maestre called him, spent so much time enjoying a position of privilege in the new left that he boasts that he can only be a feminist. Díaz admitted that this crisis “breaks the trust of many people,” but that the only way out is to try to recover it “day by day.”

The only thing clear is that no one on the left emerges stronger from this crisis. It will undoubtedly be used by those who have always discredited feminism on the left and by those on the right who hope that this will provoke the end of the new leftist parties that weakened the bipartisanship.

It’s what happens when you don’t live up to your ideals through action or omission. And everyone is aware that it is much easier and faster to lose credibility than to regain it. That is if the latter is achieved.