The former advisor of the only Podemos councilor in the Tías City Council has denounced him for a crime of sexual harassment in the workplace. Mónica Peña, who ran as number two in the 2023 municipal elections on the list of the purple party, filed this past May 30 a complaint with the Civil Guard against Nicolás Saavedra, councilor of Social Welfare of the City Council, and has accused him of making comments of a sexual and macho nature inside and outside of work.
According to her version, they met in 2014, because they were members of Podemos. After several years without coinciding, they returned to work together in 2022 in the Cabildo of Lanzarote and until now also in the City Council of Tías. Peña was dismissed this May 28 from her duties as advisor.
In the complaint that La Voz has been able to access, she has stated that "all the problems began" a year and a half ago, when she began a romantic relationship with her current partner. Since then, she has denounced that Saavedra maintained "a rather controlling attitude" and that he even asked her "who she was going out with or seeing on weekends".
In addition, she has stated that he allegedly showed her pornography videos on his mobile phone and told her: "Look how my friends greet me, look what friends I have, let's see when you say good morning to me." To which she has added that on another occasion he showed her sexual messages with a woman he had met on Tinder, where this person told him "Nico, Nico, fuck me." At that moment, the councilor allegedly asked her when she would say good morning to him in the same way.
Faced with this accusation, the councilor of Social Welfare of Tías has assured in an intervention on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero that this complaint "sounds like a tantrum, a big tantrum" and that he is not considering resigning. In addition, he has accused his party colleague of having a "strategy" and has defended that "you don't have to be very smart to know that she filed a complaint against me the day after being dismissed."
"I have no reason to resign, when the court acquits me or finds me guilty, then yes, but I am absolutely sure that I am not guilty of anything at all," he maintained during his radio intervention.
Among the comments reported, she has stated that he told her "that he had deceived her, that she was not behaving well" and other comments, which on many occasions he supposedly said in her ear. She has even stated that in one of the episodes the councilor went so far as to say that "his own behavior sometimes seemed like an Errejonada", in reference to the complaint for sexual violence against the former leader of Podemos at the national level Íñigo Errejón.
She has also stated that he told her that "she should not upload personal photos to Instagram", being on the beach with her partner, "because the people of the town were going to think she was a whore." Thus, she has indicated that "when he said this type of out-of-place comments, he would say something like: This is not harassment, is it, Mónica? You know that you and I are friends, that I love you"
In the police report, Peña has indicated that in front of other co-workers, the councilor allegedly said to her: "Look what an ass Mónica has, I only go on a cruise if Mónica shares a bed with me."
In an extension of the complaint, presented on June 2, she has indicated that
In this sense, the advisor was on medical leave for three months for psychological reasons until May 21, 2024. Then, she rejoined and was dismissed on May 28 of this year. At this point, she states that "no one in her party was aware that they were going to dismiss the complainant."
Thus, she has added that "she felt undervalued for being a woman", where "she felt psychologically attacked constantly in her free time"
