Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s attempt to end a corruption scandal was overshadowed today by the resignation of an official he had just promoted as part of a shake-up of his Socialist Party.
Francisco Salazar offered to step down as deputy in the party’s secretariat and asked for an investigation into the allegations, the Socialist Party (PSOE) said.
The PSOE said it would launch an immediate investigation, adding that no allegations had been made through its usual channels.
The left-wing news website elDiario.es quoted a PSOE official who accused Salazar of making lewd comments about her clothes and body, inviting her to dinner alone with him and asking her to sleep in his home because she worked in a lower position than him at the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s official residence and workplace.
Reuters was unable to immediately reach Salazar for comment.
The Salazar scandal came just as Sanchez was due to speak at the PSOE headquarters in Madrid, where he was due to announce measures to reassure his party members worried about the damage being done to their reputation and ability to survive.
Sanchez urged any woman who suffers sexual assault to use the channels provided by the party to report it.
“If we believe that the female body is not for sale, then there can be no place for behavior that contradicts that belief,” he said, without mentioning Salazar.
On Monday, a Supreme Court judge ordered former PSOE official Santos Cerdan to be held in custody after he was accused of organizing bribes in exchange for the award of public works contracts. Cerdan denies the charges, which are part of a wider corruption investigation that threatens to destabilize Sanchez’s government.
On Saturday, the PSOE named Rebecca Torro as Cerdan’s replacement as party secretary and two deputies. Salazar would be the third deputy secretary.
Sanchez announced several anti-corruption measures, including reforms of the party apparatus “to avoid excessive concentration of power” and providing anonymity to so-called “whistleblowers,” Reuters reports.
