The Deputación de Lugo is set too hold an remarkable plenary session this Wednesday to appoint a successor to José Tomé, who resigned following accusations of sexual harassment aired on a television program and through the PSOE’s internal channels. Burela’s mayor, Carmela López, ratified by Ferraz on Monday, has been designated by the party to fill the position. She will require the vote of the governing partner,the BNG—which has already confirmed its support—and that of Tomé himself,now an unaffiliated deputy. The President of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, has challenged the Socialists, and particularly the BNG, to act with “coherence” and not support someone they “denounced” simply to maintain the provincial government.
The “immediate” resignation of the former president was a demand from the nationalists to avoid breaking the coalition government in which they are a minority partner. The accusations against Tomé surfaced on the night of December 9th, during the Código 10 program on Cuatro. the following day, Tomé, provisionally suspended from PSOE membership, announced that he would only resign from his position as head of the provincial council, while continuing as mayor of Monforte—the second largest municipality in the province—and retain his seat as a deputy.
The long-time power broker for the party in Lugo was slow to make his departure official. On Friday the 12th, he still presided over a governing board meeting of the Deputación, which was not attended by the Socialist mayor of Castroverde.The BNG partners refused to sit and announced they would take “measures” if that “nonsense” were prolonged. Hours later, Tomé, in a statement continuing to defend his innocence, registered his resignation, convened the plenary session to make it effective—on December 30th—and set the date for his replacement: Wednesday, January 14th, at noon.
In a session that lasted only a few minutes, Tomé handed over the position to his nationalist vice-president, Efrén Castro, a role he had held since 2019.this was followed by another ordinary plenary session in which the former vice-president sat in the seat usually occupied by the Socialist spokesperson, Pilar García Porto, who took the seat to his left. On Monday afternoon, Socialists and Nationalists held a meeting at the Deputación, after which the BNG announced its vote in favor of Carmela López.
The PP Accuses of a “Pact of Shame”
The accusations against Tomé triggered an internal storm within the PSdeG, including the resignation of the Secretary of Equality, Silvia fraga, after the party leader, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, admitted knowing about the accusations “through a third party” in october. Prominent socialist activists—including, most notably, the mayor of A Coruña, Inés Rey—launched a manifesto demanding firm, transparent, and coherent action from the leadership to “maintain public trust.” The Galician leadership declared the crisis closed with the celebration of an extraordinary National Committee meeting this weekend, were over 40 people spoke. “The conclusion is clear: the leadership acted correctly as no one raised a different way of acting,” Besteiro stated on Monday.
Almost simultaneously, the president of the Xunta shifted the focus to the BNG, stating that “from the PSOE side, we already know there will be no coherence.” He challenged the nationalists to maintain the same position they had taken throughout the situation “at the decisive moment”—the election of the new president.
“I hope there isn’t a gigantic exercise in hypocrisy by agreeing to govern with those they were going to remove,” he said,adding that “it truly seems a tripartite agreement could emerge between the PSOE—or what remains of it in Lugo—the BNG,and the person causing all this,Mr. Tomé.” If that happens, he asserts, the BNG will lose not only “coherence” but also “legitimacy.” The provincial Popular Party went further, referring to such an agreement as a “pact of shame.” In the same statement announcing its support for López, the nationalists accused the PP of using “a sexual harassment complaint as a weapon” to “try to reach a government it did not achieve in the municipal elections.”
The Popular party’s challenge is not entirely disinterested: they hold twelve of the 25 seats in the Deputación. Without an agreement between the current partners, they would have enough votes to govern the provincial council alone, which they lost in 2007 after 24 years under Francisco Cacharro Pardo, one of the “caciques de la boina” (traditional political bosses). Another internal crisis within the PSOE allowed elena Candia, the current president of the PP of Lugo, to head the provincial council for three short months in 2015, until Socialist waters calmed down. since then, the Pazo de San marcos has become a priority objective for the Galician PP, and Tomé’s fall has reignited their desire to recover it.
