The general secretary of the PSOE of Cantabria, Pablo Zuloaga, has accused the alternative candidacy led by the mayor of Castro Urdiales, Susana Herrán, and promoted by the national deputy Pedro Casares, of having sown the “division” of Cantabrian socialism due to “interests”. personal”, after the electoral results to elect the list for the Federal Congress of the party, in a vote in which the group critical of the current leadership would have obtained victory, although pending confirmation by the Ethics and Guarantees Commission, since There is a contested polling station.
In an appearance before the media in the Parliament of Cantabria, Zuloaga has thus attacked the dispute between the dissident group and the autonomous leadership that he presides, while recalling that there is a contested table in the local Cartes group where people would have intervened. who were not PSOE militants and have been elusive about the panorama that now opens before the future Regional Congress in spring.
And Susana Herrán’s candidacy provisionally won in the internal vote held this past Sunday among the militancy and, if the results are confirmed, she would lead the Cantabrian delegation in the Federal Congress of the PSOE to be held in Seville at the end of November. to re-elect Pedro Sánchez. The list critical of the current party leadership claims a narrow victory of 10 delegates compared to nine for the current general secretary, Pablo Zuloaga, with a difference of just 30 votes.
The general secretary thanked the militants for their participation in the electoral process, the result of which, in his opinion, “evidence a division in the Socialist Party, which is something evident.” Furthermore, he added that “whoever tried to divide the party has done so and those who had personal interests to divide have achieved it.”
Zuloaga has interpreted that the narrow victory of his rivals (barely a margin of 30 votes, pending the final results) has been based on a “disinformation” campaign that the critical group has spread in the media. He has attributed the demobilization of part of the militancy that would have preferred not to go to vote to this “campaign.”
“It has been evident that my colleagues have launched a campaign against me, promoting the division of the Socialist Party. To do this, they have used the media and disinformation campaigns. We have seen it and that is something that has been suffered. “I have received many messages of support and from people who have decided not to participate in the process due to the rejection that was being generated by what was being seen in the media by some colleagues,” he said in his first appearance before the media since the vote.
“Fat broth” on the right
The result reflects an almost equal division of the party in Cantabria. Zuloaga, however, continues to feel “broadly supported by the militancy.” He is therefore “especially grateful for the thousands of socialist militants who have understood that this was the moment for unity, to defend Pedro Sánchez in the face of excessive harassment from the right.”
In this sense, he has considered that entering into disputes is favoring the strategy of the conservative parties. His words have been: “Those who have tried to divide the Socialist Party in Cantabria in a scenario of polarization, making a big deal to the right, know that in substance and in form they are wrong, that they do not act responsibly defending the interests of Cantabria and Spain nor those of the Socialist Party.”
Challenge in Cartes
After the vote, in which both candidates claimed victory while awaiting Ferraz’s intervention, a representative of Zuloaga at the Cartes table “was forced” to challenge the vote when it was found that non-militant people were participating in the vote. process,” reported the general secretary of the Cantabrian PSOE. ”This circumstance has been transferred to the Ethics and Guarantees Commission and the organizing committee of the 41st Federal Congress of the party to record an anomalous and irregular situation as stated in the minutes. There are even people who are not militants who have signed that document,” he insisted.
Furthermore, the socialist leader has considered that now “it is not time” to talk about the regional congress. “When the Federal Congress passes, the times of the regional congress will be drawn up,” he stated in this regard. Nor has he proposed unity strategies with the part of the party critical of his management, although he has not stopped remembering the fall in the electoral vote in Santander (Pedro Casares’ fiefdom) compared to the 33% increase in the vote in Cantabria, which Zuloaga is attributed.
“The Socialist Party in Cantabria has seen its support increase by 33% while it fell in many places, and evidently in Santander. This is a circumstance that will have to be debated in the future,” he said.
“More alive than ever”
The response from the mayor of Castro Urdiales, Susana Herrán, has not been long in coming and she has rejected that with this result “the party will break up.” “Right now it’s time to unite, there is no one left over, everyone adds up, but you have to know that the result is what it is,” the socialist leader remarked when asked by the press about Sunday’s election results, which were very close, and about which the PSOE issued a statement announcing Zuloaga’s victory taking into account the challenge from the Cartes table.
In this sense, Herrán has stressed that the results and the votes “are there.” “We have won the list that I lead, that all the militants have voted at the polls, and in the end we must respect the language of the polls.” “Those of us who understand these processes as something alive, those of us who understand that militancy are the heart and essence of the Socialist Party, understand them for what they are. The militancy has spoken at the polls, which is where it has to speak, and the results are there. The PSOE is more alive than ever,” he reiterated, while thanking “the very strong participation in this absolutely democratic and legitimate process” of all the militants of both candidates.
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