Juan Espadas copies the PSC strategy to exercise opposition to the president of the Junta de Andalucía

The PSOE of Andalusia looks to the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC) to exercise opposition in Andalusia and will copy the model that the leader of that formation, Salvador Illa, has implemented, to build an alternative to the Andalusian Government presided over by the popular Juan Manuel Moreno with an absolute majority. The general secretary of the Andalusian PSOE and socialist spokesman in the Senate, Juan Espadas, has invested this Tuesday with a certain solemnity in his proposal in an appearance in Seville in which he has “announced” this initiative with the formation of an “alternative government”, a kind of parallel structure to the Executive led by Moreno.

Espadas' idea is for the Andalusian PSOE to achieve greater “public projection”, make a “rigorous and truthful assessment” of the Board's management and incorporate “a panel of experts” to contribute to forming a socialist alternative with a view to the 2026 elections. He himself dismisses all speculation about his continuity at the head of the candidacy for the presidency of the Board. In public and private, Espadas assures that he wants to and will be the candidate, but nothing is written.

The idea is not new. Pasqual Maragall already implemented it in Catalonia in 2000, a path that Illa has also followed. After winning the primaries as a candidate for the presidency of the Junta de Andalucía over Susana Díaz by 55% of the votes and more than 17 points ahead in June 2021, Espadas was elected general secretary of the PSOE a month later. It was not until November of that year when the Andalusian leader was able to form an executive after the 14th Regional Congress. The provincial balances, always decisive and special in the Andalusian PSOE, forced Espadas to form a very large executive of 60 people.

After the regional elections of June 2022, in which Moreno swept with a historic victory and the PSOE worsened its 2018 results, Espadas already announced the constitution of “a shadow government” to closely mark the autonomous government. Nothing has been known or seen about this initiative that other leaders in the Andalusian opposition, such as the popular Javier Arenas, also tried to launch to obtain greater visibility.

Espadas considers that it is now when he should step on the accelerator since he is convinced that the Andalusian Government is not only “failing”, but that it is a “narcissistic” Executive concerned with projecting the image of Moreno and his personal campaign to the leadership of the PP.” The collapse of primary care and the waiting lists for diagnostic tests and surgical operations put a lot of pressure on Moreno's Executive, who also warns that there will be restrictions in Andalusia if the drought persists.

The general secretary will announce after the PSOE political conference in A Coruña who will make up this “alternative government”, made up of 10 areas. Espadas has called for January 26 the steering committee of the Andalusian PSOE (the highest decision-making body between congresses) and the regional executive, whose plenary session has not met since the end of October. The socialist leader also foresees changes in the regional leadership so that it dedicates itself to internal work, a decision that he has been announcing without executing it since last September, something that surprises the leading cadres. There are many voices in the Andalusian PSOE that demand profound changes in the executive, especially in the area of ​​Organization, Institutional and Municipal Relations.

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