The City Council of Alcalá de Henares activated last week its protocols against workplace harassment and sexual harassment, initiating an internal investigation after receiving complaints against Víctor Acosta, the spokesperson for Vox and second deputy mayor in this municipality of more than 200,000 inhabitants co-governed by the PP and the far right. This is confirmed by the City Council, which also clarifies that the municipal investigations have been suspended after the case was taken to court through a complaint filed by two officials and motivated by the alleged commission of the crimes of sexual harassment, workplace harassment, threats, and discovery and disclosure of secrets. Vox defends the presumption of innocence of its representative and makes explicit that the complaint has not yet been admitted for processing, as confirmed by two sources familiar with the case. The left-wing opposition, for its part, demands that political responsibilities be assumed.
“Acosta has put the spotlight on the municipal sports city,” explains a source who knows the ins and outs of municipal politics and has significant weight in the national leadership of his party. “In that context, he had clashes with the two officials, who have been in the City Council for decades and have worked with mayors from the PP and the PSOE. Like: ‘You are sold out, you have worked with the PSOE. You have been there for a long time, and you are all protecting each other,” he continues. “They reported what was happening internally, thinking that the mayor (Judith Piquet, from the PP) would defend them, that she would put Acosta in line,” he adds. “But that has not been the case. And they are in shock.”
Events are now unfolding at breakneck speed. With the 2027 municipal and regional elections already on the horizon, the controversy further poisons the atmosphere in a coalition government in which the mayor is being investigated for the alleged leak of a complaint that was used to link sexual assaults in the municipality with the arrival of migrants at a reception center. What is being clarified in this case is how an internal document from the local police reached the secretary general of the PP of Madrid and regional deputy Alfonso Serrano, who tweeted a photo of it. The fact that Acosta’s case has now erupted fuels criticism from the left-wing opposition in a key municipality in Madrid, where majorities hang by a thread, and which the PSOE governed between 2015 and 2023.
“We demand explanations,” says Rosa Romero, spokesperson for Más Madrid in Alcalá de Henares. “We respect the presumption of innocence, but that does not prevent us from demanding protective measures for the complainants,” she adds. “Vox called for the resignation of the mayor of Móstoles for similar facts: Will they apply the same yardstick?”
The left-wing party demands protection for the complainants, whose identity was revealed by the website soydemadrid.com, which on Monday previewed the filing of the complaint against Acosta.
“This is Ayuso’s PP. They know everything and try to cover it up,” criticize the regional PSOE, led by the also minister Óscar López.
Presumption of innocence
For her part, Isabel Pérez-Moñino, spokesperson for Vox in the Assembly of Madrid and member of Santiago Abascal’s national leadership, defended her party’s spokesperson in Alcalá de Henares.
“We are not like the left, we are not going to burn anyone at the stake without knowing what happened,” she said this Tuesday during an interview on Onda Madrid. “We ask for prudence, we are the only political party that respects the principle of presumption of innocence.”
However, the far-right party opted for balance in a statement issued on Monday afternoon.
“Vox Madrid confirms that its legal services are already working alongside our municipal spokesperson to know all the details of the complaint, analyze its content, study the existing documentation, and assess the actions that proceed in law,” it admitted. “Vox Madrid unequivocally rejects any conduct of harassment, abuse, threat, or illicit use of information that could be proven, but with the same firmness rejects parallel trials and any attempt to use this matter to cover up the substantive issues that the Vox Municipal Group has been raising about municipal management,” the document continued, which hints at a possible relationship between the complaint and the alleged irregularities that Acosta has been denouncing in the management of the local Sports City.
And it added: “Without prejudging the substance of the matter, Vox Madrid does not rule out that this complaint may be part of a strategy of intimidation or wear against the oversight activity that our municipal group has been carrying out in defense of the residents of Alcalá de Henares.”
What is certain is that the internal investigation in Alcalá, divided into two parts (workplace harassment and sexual harassment), is now on hold pending what happens with the judicial one. “Once the facts are judicialized, the internal processing is necessarily conditioned to the development of judicial actions, with the aim of preserving the guarantees of all parties, avoiding interference in the investigation, and respecting that it is exclusively up to the courts to determine, if applicable, the reality of the facts and the responsibilities that may arise,” explain the Alcalá City Council.
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