When José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero led the PSOE, he considered it a “miracle” that the Popular Party would one day win in Andalusia. Like everything in life, that date arrived: he won the 2012 regional elections, although it was not enough. From 2022, the miracle It has occurred on four consecutive occasions, the last one this Sunday, and it is no longer a supernatural event of divine origin, but rather a routine. “We are the party here, the one from the land, the one that most resembles Andalusia,” proclaimed the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, on Sunday night, copying the old PSOE slogan. In the Andalusian PSOE, the voices calling for the resignation of Juan Espadas as general secretary are beginning to have names and surnames. Espadas ignores them, compares himself with the tennis player Carlos Alcaraz in tenacity and defends the Andalusian result. “We have a solid ground to compete on,” he said this Monday.
The popular party has obtained 165,000 votes and 5.7 points ahead of the PSOE of Andalusia in the European elections, destroying the results of five years ago, when the socialists surpassed their opponents by 18 points. It is Moreno’s last notch, the only card he was missing to win an electoral poker that he started in the Andalusian elections of June 2022 when he won by an absolute majority and 19 points ahead of the PSOE. In the municipal elections of May 2023, the distance was 4.7 points and it achieved the eight capitals of the community and six of the provincial councils; and in the general elections almost a year ago, the PP won by three points over the socialists in Andalusia.
Espadas did not appear on Sunday night at the regional headquarters of San Vicente, a fairly unusual occurrence. He let the executive’s spokesperson, María Márquez, come forward and explain the causes of the defeat. Márquez surprised with his reading of the data: “The Andalusian PSOE reaches 32.2% of the vote in Andalusia, two points above the national average, data that encourages us, because it indicates the trend of recovery of the socialist vote in our community ”.
This Monday Espadas did not repeat them, but he signed them point by point, before reporting to the regional Executive. The general secretary clings to that “32.2%, two points more than the national average” which, according to him, “guarantees a solid ground to compete” in the future, since the difference in votes is 165,000 votes. The explanation of his data has accompanied them with the display of maps where the red-speckled dots were located in Andalusia, in contrast to the rest of Spain. “Not only is the political project not exhausted, but it will achieve its final objective in two years. Victory is a matter of tenacity, as seen yesterday [por este domingo] on the courts of Roland Garros, no one is going to beat me with tenacity,” he added.
If the results make Espadas believe that the PSOE is recovering, it leads other members of the party to ask for his resignation. They are not representative voices of the Andalusian federation, but they have their audience because they were once references. This is how it was pronounced Luis Ángel Hierro, who competed with Espadas and Susana Díaz in the primaries for the candidacy for the presidency of the Board: “Those of us who suffered the curse of Casandra knew that this would come. Juan Espadas and his executive had to resign the day the PSOE of Andalusia lost the regional elections. They are like a “black hole” that is devouring the party. I hope they resign today.” Hierro has asked the militants to demand primary elections and extraordinary congresses at the regional and provincial level in their groups. The mayor of Alcalá de los Gazules (Cádiz), Javier Pizarro, has also addressed the militancy: “The leadership must be questioned, the militants will have to say whether Juan Espadas is replaced or not,” while asking Espadas to “assume his responsibility” in statements to the newspaper Long live Cadiz.
Luis Navarrete, former president of the Seville Provincial Council and former provincial general secretary, is added to the list: “What has to happen in Andalusia for some ‘accumulators’ to resign?”, he asks. He alludes in this way to Espadas, who makes his position compatible with that of spokesperson for the socialist group in the Senate. The former general secretary of the PSOE of Córdoba, former president of the Andalusian Parliament and Susanista Juan Pablo Durán called for the “resignation” of Espadas after chaining “four electoral defeats in two years.”
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What has to happen in Andalusia for some “accumulators” to RESIGN?
— Luis P. Navarrete (@lpnmora) June 10, 2024
Espadas said that these people are not “leaders, but opinion-makers” and urged them to present an alternative now. The general secretary is willing to continue unless he does not have the confidence of the militancy. “I am working to be a candidate in 2026 and he said it here, in Ferraz and in the eight provincial groups.”
No leader in command is currently demanding in person the departure of Espadas, although voices of the need for change have been heard in the Executive that he directs. Since he has led the PSOE, Espadas has relied on the provincial general secretaries to endorse his strategy and some of these in turn have clung to the general secretary to avoid untimely movement of chairs. They hold each other together, like snacks.
But there are leaders who believe it is urgent to act now and in a “drastic” way in some provinces such as Malaga and Almería, where the PP has not stopped growing for a long time and where the popular ones have obtained their best results in the European elections.
Aside from those who call for his departure, the responsible socialist leaders consulted are in favor of stopping and analyzing. “It is evident that Espadas is weak. He must change his project, his teams and his attitude. But this is not about removing it and putting in another. “And who do you put?” says a provincial leader who highlights the million votes (actually 935,603) obtained last Sunday. According to the thesis of these sources, “there is no Andalusian defeat, because the PSOE has lost almost everywhere.”
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