The court number 2 of Violence against Women of Móstoles has admitted to proceedings, and against the PP. The woman decided to go to court after asking her party for protection for months and after EL PAÍS revealed the case on February 4. From that moment on, he considers that he was the subject of a smear campaign by the councilor and various leaders of the Madrid PP, events that he has also brought to justice.
The complaint, to which EL PAÍS has had access, was filed by his lawyer, , in the Criminal Section of the Court of Instance of Móstoles (Madrid). But from there she was referred to a court specialized in sexist violence, which admitted her to proceedings on April 15. This is a document of almost a hundred pages for alleged crimes committed both by Bautista and by the Popular Party itself as a legal entity, in application of articles 184.5 and 31 bis of the Penal Code.
The order of Judge Eloísa Márquez de Prado states that “the facts resulting from the previous actions present characteristics that suggest the possible existence of crimes of sexual harassment, workplace harassment, against moral integrity, injuries, coercion and disclosure of secrets” and agrees to the initiation of prior proceedings. He summons the woman to testify on June 29, requests that she be examined by a forensic doctor “in order to determine the harmful consequences suffered as a result of the reported events” and that the defendants be transferred.
The complaint relates that in the fall of 2022, Manuel Bautista asks the current plaintiff to collaborate on his team and ends up placing her as number two on his candidacy. According to their testimony, in this context of professional closeness the sexual advances began, especially during car trips in which they were alone. The exedil describes these proposals as repeated and explicit, and assures that from the beginning she made her rejection clear.
After that refusal, the woman maintains that the relationship changed radically and “discrimination” and professional harassment began. According to the complaint, the mayor went from propositions to spreading false rumors about an alleged relationship between the two, with comments of a sexual nature in the party environment. This context, she says, caused her great discomfort and even led her to consider abandoning the candidacy before the elections.
Once at City Hall, the complainant claims that this behavior led to workplace harassment. She relates that she was progressively removed from her duties, excluded from meetings and deprived of institutional visibility. According to the complaint, there was a process of isolation that culminated in the attempt to withdraw his powers and treatment that he considers humiliating within the government team itself.
“It can be verified in the session diary that, during the period of more than a year that I held my position as a councilor, all my colleagues defended motions except me,” he writes in the complaint, in which he adds a list of situations in which he considers that he received degrading treatment.
“Manuel prohibits me from going to events organized by the PP of the Community of Madrid and from actively participating in events and events of the PP of Móstoles,” explains the woman. “There is a continuous reassignment of minor tasks that do not correspond to my duties or my position as a councilor, depriving me of any presence at relevant events.”
The PP of Madrid: “Is it worth it to you to report? For your children, for your father?”
The then mayor asked the internal organs of the PP for help. For months, he demanded that the party in Madrid investigate the events and activate the internal protocols provided for harassment situations. After addressing President Díaz Ayuso’s cabinet, she was sent to her number two, Alfonso Serrano, who in turn appointed Ana Millán as interlocutor with the councilor. In a meeting held on March 11, 2024, which Serrano later joined, Millán persistently tried to dissuade the councilor from going to court using expressions, according to the complaint, such as “protecting yourself is doing nothing”, “a public complaint would not benefit you”, “help is not making it public, that will sink you”, “at this point where you can’t take it anymore and you are going to report, do you really Is it worth it for your children, for you, for your father?“, or “in six months they have destroyed you psychologically.”
The woman did not go to court at that time and continued to ask the party to act internally. He insisted. But the Madrid PP did not adopt any effective measures. Millán came to acknowledge her, according to her story, that she was a “personal friend” of Bautista, despite which she was in charge of addressing the matter.
The pressure affected her so much that the ex-edil ended up handing in her councilor’s certificate and requesting that she be discharged as a member of the party, in which she had been a member since 2010. She then went to the National Committee of Rights and Guarantees of the PP, the body in charge of ensuring compliance with the party’s statutes. According to the documentation to which EL PAÍS has had access, without summoning the proposed witnesses and without being notified of the closure of the procedure. The matter was thus settled internally.
In this context, the complaint argues that there are not only behaviors that fall within the crime of sexual harassment, but also workplace harassment, crimes against moral integrity, injuries and coercion. He attributes them to the mayor, Manuel Bautista, and also to the PP as a legal entity.
And the document considers that a crime of revealing secrets may arise due to what happened later, when the events were published by EL PAÍS last February and, far from supporting the person who was denouncing the harassment, what the woman considers began on the part of the mayor and some leaders of the Madrid PP. Specifically, from the Community of Madrid and the emails that had been exchanged with them were sent to the media, in one of which their identity appeared. The presidential office said it had been a “mistake.”
The complaint asks that 11 people testify as witnesses, including the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; the general secretary of the Madrid PP, Alfonso Serrano; and Ana Millán. The inclusion of these names responds, according to the defense, to the role they played in the internal management of the case once the councilor informed the party of what was happening.
The complaint provides a broader list of witnesses to prove her statements, as well as documents and medical reports to verify that there were medical professionals accompanying her since everything began in 2023. The Prosecutor’s Office had requested on March 9 that procedural momentum be given to the case and preliminary proceedings be opened, which finally happened last Wednesday.
On Friday, after EL PAÍS published an extract of the content of the complaint, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, . He assured that Bautista “is magnificent and is doing a first-class job” and noted that “he doesn’t know what he is being accused of.” The opposition came out in force once again to demand the mayor’s resignation. Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for Más Madrid in the Assembly, insisted that all the information indicates that Bautista “exercised a pattern of sexual and workplace harassment against a colleague in his party, taking advantage of his position of power.”
