A sex scandal rocking the junior coalition partner of Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has embarrassed a government that has prioritized gender equality and the fight against sexual violence.

The affair involving the far-left Sumar party has forced the resignation of one of its top figures and comes as Sanchez faces two graft scandals involving his wife and one of his former ministers.

The scandal erupted on Thursday when Sumar lawmaker Inigo Errejon, the party’s spokesman in parliament, announced he was leaving politics.

In a cryptically written statement, he referred to “mistakes” without apologizing.

It then emerged that the resignation was linked to a social media post earlier this week by a well-known feminist journalist and author, Cristina Fallaras.

She cited an anonymous account by another woman who said she had been sexually assaulted by “a well-known politician who lives in Madrid”, describing him as “a real psychopath”.

Shortly after Errejon resigned, actor and TV presenter Elisa Mouliaa announced on X that she filed a police report against Errejon, 40, for sexual assault.

The alleged assault took place in September 2021, according to a copy of the complaint provided by AFP.

Errejon, a scholar of political theory, was one of the founders in 2014 of the far-left party Podemos, which shook up Spanish politics.

He left Podemos in 2019 after his relationship with the party’s then-leader Pablo Iglesias broke down over differences over strategy, and co-founded another party, Mas Madrid, which is more moderate.

Last year, Mas Madrid joined Sumar, a new hard-left platform created by Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz who also serves as deputy prime minister.

Both Mas Madrid and Sumar have launched investigations into the affair and stressed the importance of supporting victims of sexual violence.

– ‘Hypocrisy’ –

Sanchez, who has often promoted her fragile coalition government as “the most feminist” in Spain’s history, expressed her “confidence” in Diaz and Sumar.

He called his coalition partner “an organization that has done and is doing so much for the advancement of women” in a message on X.

“The government is working for a feminist Spain where women have the same rights, the same opportunities and the same freedom and security as men,” he added.

Spain’s conservative opposition has seized on the affair to claim the left’s pro-feminist stance is “hypocrisy” and demanded to know who was aware of Errejon’s behavior and for how long.

A top official from the main opposition Popular Party, Elias Bendodo, said “everything indicates” that Sumar’s leadership “knew about it and covered it up”.

“And if they knew and covered it up, that’s called complicity,” he added.

CHZ/ds/imm/sbk