Five years after his cessation of las bravas as spokesman in the Madrid City Council on a torrid summer morning, Antonio Miguel Carmona (Madrid, 58 years old) and the current leadership of the PSOE only coincide in mutual animosity. The urgency with which the Government has wanted to disassociate itself from the new vice president of Iberdrola Spain, denying that it is another case of revolving door in the midst of the Executive’s war with electricity companies over electricity prices, is plausible. Both sides. Many moons have not wanted to know anything about each other. Since it broke up, the relationship has never been redirected. At least that is what they say, since there are those who have interpreted that, with the signing of Carmona, the Socialists gain a direct interlocutor in the sanctum of the energy giant and this, a hinge to open doors in the Executive.
Away from organic life since 2019, when Pedro Sánchez banished him from the electoral lists, Carmona had been negotiating his jump to the powerful electricity group since mid-September. His hiring comes in the midst of a confrontation between the electricity companies and the Government after the shock plan approved to stop the impact of the price of electricity on the electricity bill and the discharge that caused in La Moncloa in August the emptying of reservoirs by Iberdrola, which the Executive called scandalous due to suspicions of wanting to take advantage of the high price of energy. Runaway as had never been seen, the lack of control of prices has agitated the opposition against the Executive and the electricity companies have shouted in the sky for measures that they consider unfair, especially the obligation to return 2,600 million remunerations considered extraordinary obtained for selling cheap energy at the price of the most expensive.
Meanwhile, the economist combined classes at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, where he has been practicing for three decades, with his weekly carousel of television gatherings in prime time. Carmona, who also makes a living advising private companies, had already rejected two offers from Ibex firms, according to his surroundings, and decided that he could not miss another opportunity. And this was provided by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, president and CEO of the Iberdrola group, with whom he has maintained a cordial relationship for 20 years, according to sources in his environment who add that Galán proposed it to him in view of the need to have someone with agenda to be in charge of Institutional Relations, as well as with investors and the media of the Spanish subsidiary, but not with the Government. An activity that was orphaned since Fernando Bécker (also with a political past, in this case in the PP) left the company two years ago.
“The best place, the worst moment”
In this context, the new colleagues have received him with expectation. “You come to the best place at the worst time”, they trusted him as soon as they arrived at the company headquarters. It was a dynamite-laden salute. Although he has been away from political positions for more than two years, the revolt of the revolving doors weighs heavily on the Madrid economist and his party. None of the sources consulted escapes how unpopular this situation is, in which their interventions against PP politicians who happened to occupy positions in the private sphere are recalled, in many cases without waiting for that time considered quarantine.
However, the PSOE immediately distanced itself from the operation, in a context in which the very high costs of gas, oil and electricity threaten to truncate economic expectations. “[Carmona] He is a grassroots activist who has not represented the PSOE or its militancy for a long time. And he has never represented the current leadership ”, charged Eva Granados on Monday. “His decisions are individual; if he had consulted us, we would have said no. The Government already has a fluid dialogue with the electricity companies before, during and after this appointment. He is not any type of interlocutor of anything, “settled the spokeswoman for the organizing committee of the 40th Congress of the PSOE, which this Tuesday will take possession of its minutes as a new benchmark for the Socialists in the Senate.
Even more blunt was the president of Asturias, Adrián Barbón. “It seems a shame to me, I feel ashamed of others. What is clear is that he neither represents the PSOE nor does he obey its political leadership, ”attacked the socialist baron. More temperate, the secretary for the Organization of the Socialists, Santos Cerdán, was the first to mark the way for the party: “I have nothing against Iberdrola or against Carmona. But if the news of his signing is confirmed, it seems to me a bad message the one emitted by both ”, was pronounced on Sunday in social networks.
The explanations do not convince United We Can. The minority partner of the Executive has asked to be expelled from the party. Jaume Asens, president of the confederal group in Congress, thinks that “the coherent thing” would be for Ferraz to suspend him as a militant or for Carmona himself “to leave”. “In the midst of the war with the electricity offensive, for someone like Carmona to go over to Iberdrola’s side is indecency,” Asens said. The sources consulted from the PSOE transfer that this extreme is not possible since Carmona’s hiring is legal, conforms to the law and does not violate the party’s statutes.
The PP has not missed the occasion to attack the Government either. “It would be convenient to reflect on how they demonize actions from the left when someone from the right performs them and how they justify them from the left. This left of caviar, which the Spanish do not understand, has to begin to change ”, observed Enrique López, secretary of Justice and Interior of the popular and counselor of the Presidency of the Community of Madrid.
Fall from grace
The forcefulness, if not harshness, with which the PSOE has come out to criticize the vice president of Iberdrola Spain has returned to the present day his fall from grace in the party. Carmona did not support Sánchez in two decisive moments in the career of the Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Socialists. Faithful to Susana Díaz in the 2017 primaries in which Sánchez was re-elected by the militancy, Carmona remained loyal to Tomás Gómez until the end when he was ousted in February 2015 as leader of the party in Madrid, three months before the regional elections of 2015.
The left was left, with Ángel Gabilondo as candidate, one seat to govern the Community, bastion of the PP since 1995. Worse it was to Carmona in the capital, where he signed his political death after reaping the worst result of the PSOE. Carmona’s candidacy was the third most voted after the PP and Now Madrid, Manuela Carmena’s platform, with 15.28% of the votes (249,152) and nine councilors. Jaime Lissavetzky, in 2011, was second with 23.93% (364,600 ballots) and 15 councilors. On August 3, the first decision of the new general secretary of the PSOE of Madrid, Sara Hernández, was the removal of Carmona as spokesman in the mayor of Madrid.
The consolation came to Carmona when he was already a grassroots militant. Pepu Hernández, Sánchez’s personal bet for the City Council in 2019, made his numbers good. The former basketball coach was relegated to fourth place with 224,074 and eight councilors. Two years later, Iberdrola’s high-voltage commitment to Carmona has returned it to the wilds of the political arena. Despite the turmoil in which he has been involved, he does not flinch. Like his Atleti.