Once again, in 'shock'. Thus describe in Moncloa the reaction of Pedro Sánchez after knowing the accusations of inappropriate behaviors by several women of the PSOE with respect to Paco Salazar, who on Saturday resigned from his position in the socialist direction and his position in the government after the information revealed by Eldiario.es. One of his subordinates directly attributes practices of “harassment” and “abuse of power” when he was his superior in Moncloa who did not report either in the courts or in the internal channels of the party for fear of reprisals.
The president experiences the same 'shock', according to his team, that when they fell for alleged corruption José Luis Ábalos, first, and Santos Cerdán, later. Because Salazar was not only part of that same foundational team of 'Sanchismo' in the 2017 primaries, but until now he was the last of the trusted men who had left the PSOE leader who had lived closely his career from the return to the General Secretariat.
He was both confident, in fact, that in addition to having him at his side in La Moncloa, he had entrusted to organically rebuild the party as an attached to the Ministry of Organization after the exploding of Santos Cerdán's scandal in an election that, in reality, follows a strange decision -making line. Because to recover the Mazazo party that supposed the implication of José Luis Ábalos in the so -called 'Koldo Case' he chose Cerdán as a substitute, which was then number 2 of Ábalos. And now, with Cerdán in jail, he had placed as a trusted person in a Secretariat of Coral Organization to Paco Salazar, the third member of that group of 'Sanchistas' originally who became so friends that even in the case of Salazar and Cerdán they came to share floor for a time in Madrid.
Born in Montellano (Seville) in 1968 and a degree in Political Science from UNED in 2017, Salazar has done a bit of everything in politics during his 30 years of militancy in the PSOE. He has been mayor of his people, deputy in Cortes during two legislatures and, since 2017, first of all trusted man of Pedro Sánchez. When the wind blew against, he was one of the socialist leaders who accompanied the president today in the primary of that year against the device of the entire party. From that exercise of resistance to the factual powers of the PSOE, Salazar has always been close to the president, forming part of his hard core. Member of the National Directorate of the PSOE as responsible for electoral analysis, also held an outstanding position in Moncloa as Secretary General of Institutional Coordination, a high position assigned to the Government Presidency Cabinet. That Sánchez would entrust him with such relevant positions in Moncloa and Ferraz gives good sample of to what extent confidence was forged during all these years.
While in the public sphere he remained in the background, in the structures of the party he exercised a power that according to one of the women who worked in his charge allowed that runrun on his behaviors with his subordinates, generally young, did not jump from the offices to public opinion.
According to all the sources consulted that have known their career in recent years, Salazar was until Saturday one of the people with the greatest factual power within the Socialist Party, with a territorial control of the federations, these same sources point out, even greater than that of the organization's secretaries that have been parading by Ferraz and that, often, resorted to him to resolve the day to day of the party, as well as many argued to get to the passage of daily news.
He was only separated from the president of the Government after the abrupt departure of the Moncloa of Iván Redondo, the media former head of Cabinet, who placed Salazar as his right hand. Then, Sánchez sent him to one of those political exiles that allows him to be in the Government, the presidency of the Madrid Hippodrome of La Zarzuela, a public society with whose activity was not known. PSOE sources say that not even from that destination stopped “sharing papers” with the socialist leader to advise him. There were then those who thought that this distancing was due, precisely, to the fact that Salazar's behaviors were already “Populi”. It was not like that: just a year later Sánchez recovered him for his cabinet again.
Those who know him closely indicate, mainly, two things about his career. The first, his innate ability to develop electoral strategies and his political smell. The second, that their forms were always “abrupt” and that his reputation for importing women accompanied him in all his political positions. The information revealed by Eldiario.es this Saturday, in fact, barely caused surprise among the vast majority of socialist cadres and territorial federations. In the direction of Ferraz and in Moncloa they deny having had any suspicion, and much less complaints.
Nearby collaborators allude to an improper sexualized language of the work environments and in their teams several young women alerted each other about the discomfort of staying alone with the boss, who sometimes proposed meetings in his home, usually in dinners, out of work hours.
This Saturday, Eldiario.es published the experience of two women who worked under Salazar's orders and denounced “inappropriate behaviors.” Obscene comments about clothing and body, untimely messages with invitations for dinner alone outside working hours or even offering to sleep at home, something that a Moncloa employee describes as “sexual harassment and abuse of power.” Another young volunteer of the PSOE and family of a veteran leader also pointed him out of “slug” attitudes. The official explanation is that it has been Salazar himself who has voluntarily separated from the task he was going to have in the new PSOE and his employment in Moncloa and that he has asked to open an internal investigation. The stories of the women who have revealed Eldiario.es talk about the fear of reprisals and the immense power of Salazar, inside doors, which prevented them from denouncing their attitudes.
