Pedro Sánchez announced this Friday that he will change the PSOE's Code of Ethics to expel party members who resort to prostitution. With this measure, he is trying to quell the scandal surrounding the alleged corruption scandal involving two of his former Secretaries of Organisation, Santos Cerdán and José Luis Ábalos, and specifically the scandal involving the hiring of paid sex services.

After weeks of internal turmoil due to the resignation and imprisonment of the man who until three weeks ago was responsible for controlling the party apparatus, the president announced this first measure in a meeting held this afternoon at the Ferraz headquarters (Madrid) with Equality Secretaries in the territories and spokespersons in the Cortes prior to the Federal Committee that will take place this Saturday.

The reform of the Code of Ethics will be carried out by introducing a new paragraph in Article 4.5. It will now include the statement that the PSOE considers that"the prostitution system is an expression of violence against women incompatible with the principles of human rights and democratic ethics, since it involves treating women as objects or commodities and not as subjects of rights."

"We declare ourselves abolitionists of prostitution because we defend a social model that fights for the elimination of the causes that force women into prostitution, as this is incompatible with the social model we propose, one of equality and respect for the dignity of persons, and the defense of women's human rights," the text continues.

And concludes:"Therefore, requesting, accepting or obtaining a sexual act from a person in exchange for remuneration is considered absolutely incompatible with membership in the PSOE and the federal bodies will process these cases as a very serious offense in accordance with the Federal Statutes, also imposing the maximum sanction, which is expulsion from the party."

Women's vote

Both the PSOE and the Government have raised concerns about the potential consequences of the audio recordings in which Ábalos and his former right-hand man at the Ministry of Transport, Koldo García, which were incorporated into the investigation into the alleged illegal commission collection scheme, talking about prostitutes. In terms of image, reputation and political-electoral drift,"This is what makes us most ashamed," state high-level socialist sources.

"It's terrible. People who express themselves and act that way cannot have a place in our party," say several PSOE officials consulted by this newspaper."The anger among socialist feminists is monumental," the women interviewed say. In fact, it is believed that this anger could come to light at this Saturday's Federal Committee.

The female vote is crucial for the PSOE. In the last general election, Sánchez appealed to women to try to halt the rise of the PP-Vox bloc. The message about the setbacks that this scenario would represent for women dominated a large part of his strategy. CIS data reflects that the weight of the female vote in July 2023 stood at 60% of the total Socialist vote.

Based on data from women who said they voted—either by mail or in person—and the Socialists received 7,821,718 ballots, the September 2023 post-election survey estimates the female vote at 64%. Data from the June survey of this year put that percentage at 58.9%.