Two weeks after EL PAÍS revealed the case last February, the former popular councilor of Móstoles who had reported to her party a situation of workplace and sexual harassment by the mayor, Manuel Bautista, filed a complaint against him and the PP on February 16. The document was transferred from the local courts to a specific court for violence against women. The Prosecutor’s Office requested on March 9 that the court give procedural impetus and open investigative proceedings, but the body has not yet ruled.
The complaint, signed by lawyer Antonio Suárez-Valdés, a specialist in harassment cases —such as that of the soldier Zaida Cantera—, is a first-person account by the woman detailing the situations she experienced with Bautista since she decided to start collaborating in his campaign in the fall of 2022. She, a high school principal, had been affiliated with the PP since 2010 but had never actively participated in politics until then. She describes a prolonged situation that began with propositions in a car by her superior and ended in workplace harassment. “From my firm refusal to maintain a sexual relationship with Manuel (…) he moved to persecution, discrimination, and professional invisibility and began to isolate me,” she states in the document, which EL PAÍS has accessed.
This is an excerpt from the chronological account the former councilor offers in her complaint about what happened during those months.
1. Recruitment: “He proposed me as number two of the campaign and I participated in everything”
In September 2022, the year before the Móstoles City Council elections, Manuel Bautista asked me to collaborate with the team he was going to create, as he was named candidate for that mayoralty. I began working intensively on the candidacy project, attending all events, information tables, etc. In November, Bautista told me he wanted me to be part of his closest circle, that he needed a highly trained person who related well with others to be his right hand, so I agreed to join the project.
Manuel appointed me deputy campaign manager and later a member of the Executive Committee. I was also responsible for the entire social-health area and two of the five districts of Móstoles. When it came time to form the list for the Móstoles mayoral elections, and referring to a very high degree of satisfaction with the work I had been doing, Manuel Bautista proposed me as number two on the list because he said he wanted a dual leadership and needed someone who had managed organizations to be by his side in the government project.
2. Alleged acts of sexual harassment: “When there is a connection, it is obvious. Why not go further?”
As number two on the list and part of the PP Móstoles campaign committee, I began attending party meetings and events with Manuel Bautista in the same car, usually alone together, and it was then that Manuel Bautista began to make sexual insinuations. Although I had a cordial relationship with him due to daily and close contact, I had to tell him twice during car rides that I would not have any affectionate relationship with him other than professional, reminding him several times that I am married and have two young children.
On March 23, 2023, I returned from Rome after being away for six days with students from my school. Manuel asked me to pick him up in my car because we had an event at 5 p.m. When I picked him up, he updated me on what had happened those days and told me he missed me a lot, that all the daily events and meetings were a drag… and approaching and looking at me intently, he said that the two of us had to find some quiet time together, that he needed it, that we could spend an afternoon together outside the work environment and have something more outside work, clearly referring to a sexual and couple relationship. I was quite shocked by the comment because given Manuel’s body language, it was an obvious request for sexual relations. Although we had a good professional relationship, he had never said anything so direct and in such a confined physical space before. I replied, pretending to take it as a joke, that we were not for much rest, that May and the elections were very close, to which, insisting, he told me to think about it because there is time for everything, and he laughed. I felt very uncomfortable with that situation.
On March 26, 2023, we were again alone in the car going to another event. Stopped at a traffic light, he approached me again and looked at me intently while I was driving and asked if I had thought about what he told me the other day, when I was going to make time for the two of us alone, that the connection we had was incredible and he was waiting for me to tell him when I would have an afternoon for him to go further, which caused a jolt in my heart and a very uncomfortable situation. I replied that I did not want him to confuse the good relationship I had with him with the possibility of having a sexual relationship, that I thought he was joking the other day, although I felt uncomfortable, and that there would be nothing between us, that I had my family and was there to work. Manuel clearly understood my refusal at that moment, as he told me to forgive him if he had made me uncomfortable and to forget it.
The following days passed normally; I tried to think it was an isolated episode, although the sexual proposal and the conversations, especially due to their repetition in such a confined space as a car where I was driving, made me uncomfortable, since I had never given him the slightest reason to propose a personal relationship and it coincided with the moment he officially chose me and announced I would be number two on the list. It made me feel bad because I did not understand why he made that proposal at that moment when it was a moment of excitement for the project to be undertaken.
On April 3, 2023, we went to an event together in the car, again alone, and when we returned from the event, also alone in the car, he approached me again and said he understood I had my family, two small children… but that in politics other complicity relationships arise that unknowingly lead to something more, that he thought I had to adapt, that sometimes you have to let yourself go and when there is a connection it is obvious and why not go further, explicitly referring to the idea that he understood there was nothing wrong with us having a sexual relationship and that our partners did not have to find out.
At that moment, I stopped the car abruptly and told him he had to stop harassing me, that I had a very good working relationship with him, that I thought he was a good professional and that I wanted to participate in the project we had worked on all these months together, but that I had no attraction to him and would never have a sexual relationship with him. I told him it was not because I had my husband and family, but that I wanted him to be clear, so he would have no doubts, that I would not have a sexual relationship with him and that I did not want him to ask me again, because these kinds of propositions made me feel very uncomfortable.
Manuel told me that sometimes it was not necessary to be so blunt, that things were not black or white, with a serious and very upset expression. This situation caused me great discomfort, embarrassment, and fear, because it was not only the proposition but also his verbal and non-verbal communication, which, after my refusal, was different from the previous episode where he apologized for the discomfort. In this episode, he showed anger at my reaction and firm rejection.
From that moment on, I asked my husband to accompany me on the occasions when Manuel or campaign leaders told me to pick him up, so I would not go alone, because every time I was forced to be alone with him I felt fear.
The head of communication for the electoral campaign and former head of communication for the Móstoles City Council, appointed by Manuel Bautista and no longer in office, stated in a letter he sent me via WhatsApp: “Manuel Bautista was so obsessed with her that when she was not at the headquarters or in a meeting, he made us call her or made anyone call her to appear at the headquarters to be with her and then take her home or accompany her to anything, always in a very dirty and ugly way.”
He is also a witness to an incident that occurred in April 2023, as he recounts in the same letter: “I remember one day going to the Soto football field, she was ahead, and Manuel Bautista told me I was wearing very tight pants. I said, well, many people wear tight pants. Look, she is also wearing very tight pants. And he said in front of her, hearing it: ‘Man, with that ass she can wear whatever she wants because she looks so good and those pants suit her perfectly.’ I told him: ‘Manuel, those comments are out of place.’”
At that point, seeing that Manuel did not stop his behavior, I said nothing. That comment made me very uncomfortable, and I felt very embarrassed to be in that situation, afraid that the situation would escalate. I felt a lot of shame and guilt.
3. “Manuel starts spreading the rumor that he sleeps with me and I consider withdrawing from the candidacy”
From that moment on, despite my firm refusal or as a consequence of it, Manuel began to defame me behind my back, commenting in party circles that he had slept with me and that I was his lover, a completely false claim, making very sexist comments and explicit references to sexual relations he said he had with me. Because of this information, I had to firmly call his attention, urging him not to repeat such an act, as I would be forced to report him.
Among the witnesses who can corroborate the above is his right-hand man and head of communication throughout his candidacy and later head of Communication of the City Council, who in writing told me some of the expressions he heard from Manuel Bautista about me, which I proceed to transcribe:
“She is really hot, well, she is only for me, I mean [SIC] forget about her,” “this woman brightens our day and will brighten mine even more, great tits…”, “I’m fucking her,” “I hired her to do a great job for me.”
According to witnesses, Manuel also began to say that he appointed me as director at my center and that is why I do favors for him. These last statements were made also in the presence of Raúl Gallego [at that time a popular councilor in the Móstoles City Council, who resigned after the former councilor’s case came to light]. According to what Gallego told me verbally, Manuel told him that he had appointed me as high school principal and that I owed him a lot, when I had earned my position through competitive examination and selection process.
These rumors spread by Manuel reached his wife, who began attending all events with a clear change in attitude towards me, even showing up at executive committee meetings. Her treatment towards me changed radically. From having a cordial and close relationship, even having coffee together on several occasions, to refusing to speak to me and even threatening me, according to an eyewitness, to “drag me by the hair.” Also, Manuel’s comments caused incidents such as walking with my husband through Móstoles and a member of the fan clubs asking if we were still together because Manuel said he was with me.
On May 18, 2023, I told Manuel that due to the harassment situation I was being subjected to, my intention was not to take the seat if we won the elections to be held days later. I said I would cite personal reasons and continue with my work without causing any problems because by then I was already having a very hard time.
At that moment, Manuel seemed scared and told me not to quit, that everything was going to change, that everything would improve, that he was sorry this situation had arisen, that it was tension typical of the campaign period, that we were going to govern and that this situation would be resolved. At that moment, I was very afraid that people would talk about me and my family if I made any move to leave the campaign, and I tried to have a cordial relationship with him again, as at the beginning. It happened that my father was very ill, and the last thing I wanted was a scandal involving my daughter’s privacy. My father passed away on October 29, 2025.
On June 6, 2023, after telling Manuel I did not want to take my seat, Jorge Leal, campaign manager and later director of the Mayor’s office, called me to a meeting where he asked me not to hesitate to take it, that I would have a fundamental role as number two in the City Council, that all this was a product of tension. He told me not to miss the opportunity after all the work I had done. I thanked him for his intervention. At that moment, Jorge Leal showed empathy with my position and even told me he was worried about how he had seen me and did not want me to suffer.
On June 7, 2023, Manuel Bautista called me and told me to go to the Ministry of Education. At that time, he was Deputy Minister of Education. He summoned me in the morning and told me by phone that it was justified [even though I only worked afternoons at the City Council], since he was calling me as Deputy Minister and I was a high school principal. He also asked Jorge Leal, his advisor in Education at that time, to come.
We met at 1 p.m. Manuel told me I could not throw everything away, that I had worked hard, that everything that had happened was due to tension between campaign and government, that everything was going to change and go well, that he knew I was having a very hard time and that it was normal because I did not know anything about political relationships. He proposed that I take the seat and not cause a scandal and also proposed in that meeting that, as he did in Fuenlabrada between 2011 and 2015, when he was director of a school in Fuenlabrada and at the same time a councilor of the Fuenlabrada City Council, I could combine the position and continue at my school. He said I had more than enough capacity and that this way I would have an option if later I did not want to continue. I accepted, despite the resentment Manuel caused me, understanding that the situation would be redirected and that no more acts of harassment would occur on his part. Manuel told me I would be assigned to the council department that would be most consistent with my work compatibility.
4. Professional harassment for not accepting sexual propositions
After winning the Móstoles City Council elections, I was assigned the Digitalization and New Technologies council department and the compatibility with my job as high school principal was approved. However, from my firm refusal to maintain a sexual relationship with Manuel, and as soon as we took our respective seats, he moved from the initial request of that type to persecution, discrimination, and professional invisibility. He began to isolate me during important party events, exclude me from the functions of my position and from work meetings I used to attend. According to the former press chief, Bautista summoned him to his office to tell him he did not want any publication featuring him and that nothing he did should be publicized.
My participation in plenary sessions to defend motions and interventions related to the work done in the council department is systematically denied. All my colleagues have presented proposals in these 15 months. I have not. It can be verified in the session diary that, during the more than one year I held my councilor position, all my fellow councilors defend motions except me.
I am excluded from events I had scheduled, being removed from others once they started. I am assigned minor tasks unrelated to my council department and tending to my professional degradation. Some councilors and corporation workers are witnesses to this.
On November 10, 2023, I was called to be told that the mayor had requested that I not present any awards at the Sports Gala, that he did not want to see me on stage. Immediately, the gala protocol was sent again excluding me. As proof, the two protocols can be requested: the one previously sent establishing that all councilors, including me, would present awards, and the later one excluding me.
Manuel forbids me from attending events convened by the PP of the Community of Madrid and actively participating in events and activities of the PP of Móstoles. There is a continuous reassignment to me of minor tasks that do not correspond to my functions or position as a PP councilor, depriving me of any presence at important events.
These are some of the statements the former Communication Chief of the Cabinet conveyed to me: “After presenting the lists and presenting her with great fanfare, there is a radical turning point. It goes from wanting her continuously close to not being able to appear in any photo with him. When asked what was happening, he said she was annoying, that she thought she was a goddess and that now she would be far away.”
Manuel summoned me on February 26, 2024, and told me they were going to remove me from the council department, leaving me without functions. My council department was assigned in another meeting to another councilor, Raúl Gallego. There, with the intention of humiliating me, I was told I would have a space with the party’s administrative secretary in the group, but I would no longer have an office and that I should collect my things.
Immediately after this meeting, on that same day, February 26, 2024, I wrote the email attached to the President of the Community of Madrid requesting protection and asking for a meeting with her, interpreting this action as the definitive act of alleged workplace harassment that I was no longer willing to endure. [That decision to remove her professional responsibilities was later halted when she went to Génova to seek protection].
From here, the former councilor begins another account: what happened with the Popular Party when she tried to communicate what was happening; and the smear campaign she was subjected to when EL PAÍS published the facts. The complaint was finally filed by the Suárez-Valdés office against Manuel Bautista, and against the PP “as a legal entity presumably directly co-responsible for the facts,” for the alleged commission of the crimes of sexual harassment, workplace harassment, against moral integrity, injuries, coercion, and disclosure of secrets. The document, 93 pages long, proposes a list of witnesses and documents and requests that the reports and testimonies of the medical professionals who accompanied her from the beginning of the process be taken into account.
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