The professor of the University of Seville Luis Ángel Hierro, reference of the movement called PSOE-A reconstructionhas informed the party of his decision to formalize his pre-candidacy for the General Secretariat of the same, which this Tuesday, January 7, opens the period for presenting pre-candidacies. While the party in Andalusia is abuzz with the growing questioning of the leadership of the current general secretary, Juan Espadas, and the attempt to agree on a solution that avoids going to primaries, Hierro takes the step and opts again as he did in 2021, when he faced Espadas himself and Susana Díaz to be designated a candidate for the Junta de Andalucía.
The presentation of candidacies (for which the deadline will be open until January 10) is the first of the most notable milestones in the calendar of the congressional process faced by the main socialist federation in Spain by number of members, which will culminate with the XV Congress Regional that the PSOE-A will hold in Armilla (Granada) on February 22 and 23. Hierro now has the challenge of obtaining the necessary endorsements, for which a high range has been established: it is estimated that around 4,000 signatures may be needed, the equivalent of 12% of the membership.
All of this, in a framework in which Juan Espadas has been expressing his intention to run for re-election, a purpose that he reiterated on the same day that he announced the date that he was going to propose to the Regional Executive Commission and the Steering Committee of the PSOE. -A for the celebration of the XV Regional Congress. Since then, she has remained significantly silent about her plans, coinciding with the fact that the latest internal movements indicate that the federal leadership in Ferraz is considering replacing her and that the favorite to take on the challenge would be the first vice president and Minister of Finance, María. Jesus Montero.
Along with Montero, among the names that have been most speculated on as a possible alternative to Espadas is also that of the assistant secretary of Organization of the federal PSOE, the Jaen representative Juan Francisco Serrano. In fact, socialist leaders from Jaén have already launched Serrano to lead the party in Andalusia in the face of Montero’s misgivings.
“Change and renewal”
In this context, the PSOE-A Reconstruction movement defends that Luis Ángel Hierro’s candidacy is “the pre-candidacy of change and renewal of leadership and political action.” In passing, he points out “the work started with Andalucía Socialista-Bases en Marcha in January 2021 to present a candidacy of the militancy in the 2021 primaries and which was revitalized in December 2023 with the PSOE-A Reconstruction platform and which has been reinforced in recent weeks with Andalusian Socialist Bases.”
“Militants from all provinces support this project of change with the aim of uniting the party and winning over the PP in Andalusia,” maintains this sector of the Andalusian PSOE.
“The purpose of this movement of the socialist bases is constructive to achieve a more effective and participatory party, more inclusive, more open, more active, a more Andalusian PSOE-A that exercises socialism with the DNA of European social democracy that “It defends the pillars of the welfare state against the voracious neoliberalism developed by Moreno Bonilla’s PP, which reduces public services, clearly harming the quality of life of Andalusians,” this movement abounds.
In a letter distributed among the militancy, Luis Ángel Hierro also warns that Juan Espadas has been “electorally defeated in the last four elections in Andalusia”, which is why he presents his candidacy to “promote the impoverished internal democracy.”
The calendar for the XV Regional Congress approved by the Steering Committee of the PSOE-A on December 20 in Jaén states that, once the pre-candidacy presentation period ends, it will open – between January 11 and 18 at noon – the collection and presentation of endorsements that the pre-candidates must gather to be proclaimed candidates between January 18 and 20. If there is more than one candidate, primaries will be held, which will be preceded by an information campaign that will run between January 21 and 31.
February 1 and 8, dates of the primaries
Voting day for the first round of the primaries would take place on February 1 and, if necessary, a second round would be held on the 8th of that month. According to the Statutes of the PSOE, a second round would be necessary if in the first round no candidate obtained more than 50% of the valid votes.
In this way, in the first round the candidate who obtains more than 50% of the valid votes will be elected general secretary, while, if there are more than two candidates proclaimed and none obtains more than 50% of the valid votes, they will go to the second round. second round the two candidates that obtain the highest number of votes. In this case, the candidate who obtains the greatest number of votes would be elected general secretary.
In this way, the final proclamation of the winner of the primaries would occur between February 1 and 3 or February 8 and 10, depending on whether a second round is necessary or a single one is sufficient.
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