Two Junts deputies report harassment due to gender
The Junts per Catalunya parliamentary group is experiencing an internal crisis situation that does not seem to have an end. On this occasion, the conflict has two protagonists: the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, and the second secretary of the Bureau of the Parliament and deputy of Junts, Aurora Madaula. Both have starred in a new episode in which they have denounced harassment on the grounds of gender by their own party.
According to sources in Erra’s cabinet, the president of Parliament has requested a legal report to “review” how the chamber’s harassment protocol has been applied, with the aim of making it “more secure”. This request comes after the Office of Equality of the Parliament has filed the complaint of Cristina Casol, another deputy of Junts, for “harassment on the basis of gender”. Erra considers that there were “shortcomings” in the first case in which the protocol was used, especially in the issue of confidentiality. He also wants to know if the protocol needs to be suspended while it undergoes a possible review. However, his proposal was rejected at Tuesday’s Board meeting.
For his part, Madaula has followed in Casol’s footsteps and, as reported by Ara and confirmed by El Món, he has also filed a complaint with the Parliament’s Equality Office against his group for harassment on the basis of gender , after having also done so before the corresponding organ of the party. Madaula has been out of office since December 5 due to the controversy generated by an intervention that caused Erra to withdraw his confidence and twenty party deputies to push a letter against her for having denounced “silent sexist violence” by her colleagues in the Women’s Plenum.
Pressure to expel Casol from the parliamentary group
These accusations only contribute to increasing the noise around the Junts parliamentary group, which has been experiencing a situation of internal tension for weeks. The Permanent Secretariat of the party dealt with Casol’s case in a meeting a week ago and asked the deputy from Lleida to leave the minutes and leave the parliamentary group. Faced with the deputy’s refusal to accept the party’s request, it was expected that this week’s group meeting would be used to make a decision on the matter, but no action was taken. Even so, more than twenty deputies of Junts have signed in favor of expelling Casol from the group, but, for now, the deputy attended this week’s plenary as a member of the parliamentary group of Junts. In any case, Casol, who was number two of Junts per Lleida in the last elections, has no intention of resigning from the minutes and if she ends up being expelled from the group, she will become a non-affiliated deputy.
Borràs seeks mediation between the parties
Faced with this scenario, the president of Junts, Laura Borràs, is trying to re-lead the conflict and prevent further damage to the party. In fact, he requested in the last meeting of the National Council and in that of the executive a mediation between the two opposing parties, the party leadership and Casol -considered to be from the Borràs sector-, with the argument that this crisis harms the party as a whole. The step taken by Madaula and Erra’s proposal only exacerbate the internal crisis within the Junts parliamentary group.