A hurricane to wake up the PSOE in Andalusia. María Jesús Montero waved her arms so much in her speech on Wednesday before the party leaders that it seemed like she was going to take off at any moment. In a competition to see who puts the most energy and passion into the task, it’s hard to beat the vice president. The contrast with Juan Espadas, who will pour his limited charisma into the Senate, could not be more evident.
Pedro Sánchez believes he has a remedy to boost the socialists in several autonomous communities. When looking for new regional leadership, it is better to resort to the signings available in the central government. Like when a football club in trouble turns to the winter market. The bet is on political moonlighting, an idea that contradicts the reality that everyone knows. Can you be a party leader in a community part-time and effectively? Or be the leader only on weekends?
Montero in Andalusia. Pilar Alegría in Aragon. Diana Morant in the Valencian Community. Óscar López in Madrid. For Castilla y León, Ferraz selected the mayor of Soria, Carlos Martínez, who at least lives in the region. The latter denied the accusation: “I am not ‘Pedrista’ or ‘Sanchista’. “I am a socialist.” Could it be that ‘sanchismo’ is just a state of mind.
“Andalusia, the place I have not returned to because I never left,” said Montero. In these situations, politicians shamelessly go for the bolero style. But the truth is that Montero left to play a crucial role in Pedro Sánchez’s governments since 2018. She put an end to sixteen years of positions in the Andalusian Junta, beginning with the position of Deputy Minister of Health in 2002. She ended up negotiating five budgets as head of the Treasury without his party having an absolute majority in Parliament.
Now, just a year and a half before the next Andalusian elections, Montero must simultaneously hold two seemingly incompatible jobs. His party needs it seven days a week and his Government, at least five days. There are no weeks that long. He will do everything possible to step onto the streets, although the indisputable fact is that he will spend more time stepping on carpets in the Ministry or Parliament.
There is another obstacle of a political nature. She will have to defend the economic interests of the region as an Andalusian candidate to affirm that she deserves better than the Government of Juanma Moreno, while negotiating the General State Budgets, trying to balance the aspirations of each autonomous community and offering the Catalan Generalitat its own system. of financing that can be extended to the rest. Too many saucers flying through the air in full acrobatics so that none of them fall to the ground.
Evidently, it did not take long for the Popular Party to associate Montero with concessions to the Catalan nationalists. Its leaders have a long history of statements against the Catalans, because they are convinced that this line of attacks works in Andalusia. The election results confirmed that they were not far wrong.
Montero can at least say that he has the key in his possession even if the lock resists. No matter how risky their position may be, the budget negotiations and the forced concessions will pass through their hands. Ministers Alegría and Morant must assume the consequences for their regions of the decisions made by others.
The recovery after the DANA in Valencia introduces another element of attention for the Minister of Science, especially once Carlos Mazón has chosen the path of direct confrontation against the Government as the only formula to save his neck. To make Valencians forget their three-hour meal in El Ventorro, if that is possible, all that remains is to allege that Sánchez and his Government have abandoned the victims.
The headlines highlight that Montero wants the Andalusian PSOE to recover its self-esteem, which has been depressed by the defeats against Moreno and the apathetic leadership of Espadas. There is no money to pay for the therapies that their leaders should have followed in order to get rid of the depression they have suffered since their hegemony in Andalusia ended. The party that dominated the region for decades as if it were the PNV in Euskadi or the CSU in Bavaria remained at 24% in the last regional elections with the PP 19 points ahead.
Winning again in Andalusia seems like a very distant goal. But the PSOE cannot allow itself to lose all hope with a community of 8.4 million inhabitants. You just have to remember what happened in the 2023 elections. The PP was only able to surpass the socialists in four seats due to a difference of three points. He thought he was going to be older and that it would provide him with a sufficient victory throughout Spain.
“Juan Espadas was not worth it because he did not shout enough,” said the general secretary of the Andalusian PP. In reality, with Espadas the problem was not that he didn’t shout, but that there were very few people interested in what he said. What is certain is that Montero has no problem shouting and getting the audience out of their seats. She is the discharge of a few thousand volts that the PSOE believes it needs to be competitive again in Andalusia.
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