The lawsuit filed in court by the former popular councilor of Móstoles against the mayor, Manuel Bautista, and the PP for sexual and labor harassment, injuries, coercion, a crime against moral integrity, and revelation of secrets, which EL PAÍS revealed last Friday, has a second part in which she refers, in the first person, to what happened afterward, when she decided to appeal to the Madrid PP to seek protection against what was happening.
The Popular Party has been her official party since 2010, the year she joined. But her family had always been PP supporters. So when Bautista proposed she join his project, first as a volunteer and then as number two on the lists, she did so with enthusiasm, as her account of events reflects. For this reason, out of respect for her party, before going to court to report, she wrote to the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to ask for help. She wanted to resolve it internally. But it was not possible, and the case ended up in court. The woman recounts that she felt helpless and desperate: “My interlocutors [from the PP of Madrid] became very aggressive, and I received completely degrading treatment.”
The lawsuit, signed by lawyer Antonio Suárez-Valdés, specialized in harassment cases, and filed on February 16, was transferred from the Móstoles courts of first instance to a specific court for violence against women, which admitted it for processing on April 15.
This is an excerpt from the former councilor’s first-person account that appears in the lawsuit of what happened when she met with PP leaders in Madrid.
First meeting with the PP of Madrid: “I am experiencing a very serious situation of harassment”
After writing to President Ayuso, on March 11, 2024, a meeting took place with Ana Millán, Deputy Secretary of Organization and Electoral Affairs for PP Madrid, Vice President of the Assembly, and number three in the regional party. Also present at this meeting was Alfonso Serrano, Secretary General of the Madrid PP, Assembly deputy, and senator. The meeting took place at the party headquarters, on Génova street.
There, in a high state of anxiety, I explained to Millán and Serrano part of the information previously gathered, given its magnitude and my emotional state. Ana Millán stated that it was difficult for her to be impartial because she is a friend of Manuel’s and he is her choice for Móstoles. At the meeting, which lasted more than two hours, I explained in detail the situation I was experiencing. I provided reports on the development of my duties as a PP councilor in Móstoles. In this meeting, after being fully aware of the harassment situation I had been suffering, they tried to pressure and coerce me not to report the facts. I literally quote some of the very serious and inexcusable statements that were made in response to the sexual and labor harassment situation I described to them:
Me: “The situation I have been living for 10 months is a very serious situation of harassment, and for which I am going to take legal action. (…) Manuel wants to mix the professional and the personal, and I tell him that I come here to work, that I have two children, that I am married. But that, besides, I truly have no doubt that it will not happen. (…) Manuel orders me to be thrown out of events where I was on duty and had previously been sent the protocol invitation and confirmed my attendance, and even while at the event itself, he tells me to leave.”
Ana Millán, addressing Alfonso Serrano when he joined the meeting later: “To summarize, she tells me that she has been experiencing an uncomfortable personal situation since before the elections, in which Manuel appointed her deputy campaign manager, they spend more time together, and the problem begins when Manuel mixes the personal and the professional; from her refusal, the differences begin.”
Millán, addressing me: “What matters to me is the person, and I see that you are suffering a lot because of what has happened (…) You attribute everything to your no. (…) Having reached this point where you can’t take it anymore and are going to report, is it really worth it to you? For your children, for yourself, for your father. Sometimes more is achieved by talking. Once we make it public, unfortunately, people will always talk about you (…). What you cannot allow is for it to affect you, because you have been enduring it for 10 months (…). Help is not making it public; that will sink you (…) People matter to me, it’s costing you your health, what cannot be good for you is a complaint in court, because they will devour you (…). The Popular Party is here to help you (…). That protection means getting any kind of complaint out of your head. Let’s stop this. This is textbook harassment. (…) You have to protect yourself, and protecting yourself is doing nothing.”
Serrano: “My utmost respect for what you feel and have experienced (…). What we are talking about here is that Manuel signs you, puts you as number two, there is a conflict between the personal and professional, he flirts with you, you reject him, and from then on everything changes, are we talking about this? (…) Here we are talking about Manuel’s attitude being this because he flirted with you, or is there something more? (…) It’s not about covering up; it’s that a public or judicial complaint would affect you.”
The mayor calls all councilors to ask whose side they are on
After the first meeting in Génova on March 11, 2024, my interlocutors leaked the information to Manuel. He individually called the city councilors to inform them that I was going to report him and to ask them whose side they were on.
From that moment on, I began to suffer even greater isolation, as not only did two councilors stop speaking to me, but all the others immediately distanced themselves to avoid reprisals. Manuel’s closest circle began to post statuses on their WhatsApp instant messaging applications and make comments about me being a traitor.
The coexistence is unsustainable. Apart from the intentional invisibilization and social isolation, there are personal attacks. Rumors are spread. My work is hindered, instructions are changed, necessary information is hidden, and tasks and projects are sabotaged so they don’t succeed, and then an attempt is made to use it against me
After this first meeting and with my situation having exponentially worsened, on March 15, I wrote to my president again. I sent an email requesting information on the measures being taken. They referred me to the general secretary, and after receiving no information, I wrote another email on March 22. They called me by phone to schedule a second meeting, on April 16, 2024, at the PP headquarters in Génova.
Second meeting: “Millán and Paniagua, aware of the seriousness of my accusations, question me and invite me to step back”
Present at this meeting were Ana Millán and Lucía Paniagua, deputy mayor in the town of Villanueva de la Cañada and a member of the PP of Madrid’s Executive Committee. They were fully aware of the seriousness of the accusations against Manuel: “The next step was to talk to the other party, because these are very serious accusations,” they told me. But at no point did they offer me preventive measures, advice, or support. They denied the obligation to establish a sexual and labor harassment protocol, questioned me, and cast doubt on my claims while inviting me to step back. The meeting ended with them saying they would talk to Manuel Bautista and asserting that they had not yet given him any information, which was undoubtedly false.
I informed my interlocutors about the atmosphere of total war unleashed by Manuel against me after my internal complaint about what happened: “Manuel has individually summoned some of my fellow councilors to ask them, ‘Whose side are you on? Here there is a conflict in which you have to position yourself either on my side or on the other side.’”
I also requested the activation of the harassment protocol given the extremely difficult situation I have been suffering: “I want to convey to you that I also come here because I have been with the PP my whole life, my family too, that if this situation had occurred outside, I would have already reported it, because that is where these things are resolved and because I also want there to be justice. But I ask for your intervention (…). I believe that such behavior as Manuel’s cannot be allowed in politics.”
Ana Millán: “If it’s as she says, it’s enough to kill Manuel and everyone around him”
In response to my request for protection and intervention, I only received evasions, veiled threats, and phrases tending (with much initial success) to convince me to desist from pursuing my complaint and to resign from my position. These are some of the very serious statements made by my interlocutors at that meeting:
Ana Millán: “I recommended to you, and I continue to recommend, that a judicial complaint, which will become public within two days, I believe will not help you (…) I don’t know what you understand by protection. Our protection was go home, talk to your husband (…). Calm down, reflect, talk to your husband, truly judge if this is worth it to you, that it’s not worth it (…). And look, someone who lives for and by the PP tells you this. I’ve been here for many years, and we have all endured many things, good, bad, more media-covered, less media-covered, and our families even more so (…) Is it worth it to you? Leave it, the PP doesn’t end in Móstoles (…) Because I see you, because a person doesn’t cry like you cry, you know? It’s not right for a person to be unwell, and that’s why I told you, meditate on it, think about it, that maybe, hey, I don’t know, it’s more worth it to you to step aside and not suffer as you are suffering or for your father or your husband to have a bad time. You are an intelligent person. Do you think you will be able to continue working there? You don’t have an employment relationship; councilors, mayors, etc., we cannot say, because legally we don’t have one, there is no employment relationship, that is, you are not a PP employee. You are asking us to open the harassment protocol and I don’t know what. The thing is, for us, you are not a civil servant. We cannot apply the harassment protocol in the Popular Party; there isn’t one. In the Popular Party, what there is is a Committee of Rights and Guarantees.”
Lucía Paniagua: “There are two ways here: either you make an amicable decision between yourselves, or you have to go to the committee of rights and guarantees, or one of you has to step back.”
Millán: “What you described is textbook” (referring to harassment)“.
Paniagua: “I think you need to get over your upset and be sensible about your future and yourself. If we leave this in a conciliatory environment like the one we are in now and you are able to redirect this, great, no problem. He probably won’t want you to continue with the other council positions, and you’ll have to swallow staying as a rank-and-file councilor. We cannot interfere in the management of a City Council, so this would remain as is. (…) Trying to have the least relationship, and nothing has happened here. Think about it because perhaps that’s exactly what you’re asking for.”
Millán, referring to the complaint in court: “I advised her not to do it because tomorrow I would see it on La Sexta to attack Ayuso. They are going to use her, they are going to bring her up here to hit the president.”
Paniagua: “In six months, they have psychologically killed you. If you have your profession, you are a civil servant, you have your life, is it worth it for you to be here?”
Millán: “Without questioning what you say and the behaviors you say Manuel has, I don’t want you to feel offended or questioned, because I believe you, but we will have to talk to him; it could be your word against his, unfortunately.”
Paniagua. “It’s going to be that, your word against his.”
Millán: “If it’s as she says, it’s enough to kill him… if it’s as she has told it, it’s enough to kill him and everyone around him.”
When I indicated that the lawyer told me to go ahead, Millán replied: “That’s what I told you, it’s textbook.” “Now is the time to talk to him,” she told me. “I will ask him and cross-reference (…). And the time will come when I will have to tell him: ‘Manuel, you are being accused of discriminating against her because she did not agree to have a personal relationship with you.’”
To my question of why I have to assume that in a club environment they call me “the mistress,” she replies: “Why do you have to assume it? Because we are in politics. When you get into politics, you have to be prepared to endure many things. And unfortunately, for women…, when I joined, I already told you.” Paniagua added: “Think that maybe now it’s worth it for you to be in the background, not so visible, let time pass and then… You have to keep a low profile for a while and then you’ll see.”
Third meeting: “My interlocutors became very aggressive, and I received completely degrading treatment”
After this second meeting, no anti-harassment protocol was activated either. That is why, already being in therapy since the beginning of the process in May 2024 and with my health seriously affected, I requested another meeting to be informed of the actions taken.
Subsequent to this letter, they called me by phone to inform me that we would meet the last week of September-first week of August. Once this period ended, my lawyer wrote to them, and they scheduled a meeting for me in Génova on October 2. I attended this meeting accompanied by my lawyer. In it, my interlocutors became very aggressive, and I was told that they would not allow my lawyer to be present at the meeting.
In that meeting, I was treated in a completely degrading manner. I was informed that they had no record of a judicial procedure and that it was a matter beyond the party’s jurisdiction as it was strictly municipal. When I asked for explanations, they told me they met with Manuel as party colleagues. To that statement, I replied: “That is, in the face of an alleged case of sexual and labor harassment, it is dealt with at a colleague level, and you don’t activate anything, right?” Ana Millán threatened me, in my opinion, with the alleged intention of coercing me to desist from my intention to report Manuel, telling me that I had been reported and that I would face a guarantees committee for passing information to the PSOE, it being absolutely false that I had passed any information to any political group.
When I asked if I had to go to court to report the facts because my party did not protect me, they replied: “No, never.”
“My former party has denigrated me and spread hoaxes to destroy my image”
The next day, October 3, 2024, I submitted my immediate resignation as a councilor and as a PP member due to the intense discomfort and lack of protection I encountered. The response I received from the regional affiliations committee was insulting, in addition to being another act of helplessness and discrimination towards me. My party’s lack of response has caused revictimization and additional harm with its actions, showing absolute partiality towards Manuel Bautista, with Ana Millán stating that he is her friend and a personal bet; clearly abandoning the victim of this situation.
Following my stubborn insistence and with a meager statement, I was informed of the opening of a file in the National Committee of Rights and Guarantees of the Popular Party. At that moment, Francisco Galeote, the instructing member of the open internal information procedure, summoned me to present my written statement. I did so on December 10. In this information file, neither I nor, supposedly, my witnesses were questioned, nor was I given a reasoned response.
Thus, all the declarations of intent embodied in the PP’s statutes and codes of conduct turned out to be nothing more than dead letters in my case, as no effective application of a protocol for the adequate protection of the victim occurred. Furthermore, the very late response and actions of its control bodies turned out to be nothing more than a kind of farce, tending to try to give the appearance of an investigation into what happened.
Despite this, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, declared at a press conference that his party investigated the complaint. Moreover, in the days following the anonymous leak to the media of the situation I had been suffering, various PP officials rushed to make all kinds of false statements in relation to the facts now reported, with all kinds of hoaxes aimed at destroying my credibility and public image having been spread by my former party.
These statements have caused me great pain, because after initially pressuring me (successfully) not to go to court to report the mayor of Móstoles and, in this way, cover up the scandal, my former PP colleagues not only did not protect me, but proceeded to denigrate and vilify me in the media to socially ruin me.
During the time elapsed since my first call for help, the harm caused to me by these events is very serious. For more than a year, I have had to endure a situation of alleged continuous sexual and labor harassment, which has not been corrected by the people the president of the Community of Madrid designated to handle my case. I have had to resign my position as councilor in the Móstoles City Council, with the corresponding economic loss and moral damage. I have required medical and psychological intervention derived from this harassment situation and my party’s inactivity in correcting it and protecting me.
