A step to the side? A step back? One step forward. There is Pedro Sánchez for a while. The President of the Government closed the 41st Federal Congress of the PSOE this Sunday, after being elected with 90% of the support of the more than 1,000 delegates who participated in the conclave. And he did it with a harangue to cadres and militants with which he raised the low morale that was felt throughout the weekend at the conclave held in Seville. Because of the judicial offensive, because of the campaign of harassment and demolition of the political-media right, because of the spread of hoaxes, because of the lack of internal debate, because of the absence of ideas or whatever…
Without mentioning even once the judges or Alberto Núñez Feijóo, his almost 50 minutes of speech were the only ideological charge that was heard in the three days of a congress from which no one left too satisfied. Pedro Sánchez made a radical defense of the public in a framework in which he proclaimed his strength to continue until 2027. The message was clear, resounding and unequivocal: “I have desire, enthusiasm and more strength than ever.” If there are those who think that, after the doubts of the 5 days of April, 10 years as Secretary General and almost 7 years as President of the Government, the tenant of La Moncloa is weak, they are wrong. He neither breaks nor gives up, despite feeling like a victim of “hate and haters.”
Sánchez has decided that it is not the time to throw in the towel nor to get discouraged. And he recalled that in the last year, “intolerant people have harassed us with hoaxes and disinformation campaigns by land, sea and air. They have vandalized our town houses. They have even gone as far as verbal and physical aggression. “They have attacked the memory of an impeccable party, which risked its life for freedom and democracy in Spain.”
“You might think that if they attack us so much it is because they feel strong and see us weak, but it is just the opposite. They harass us because they know that the PSOE has become a reference and a bastion of hope. Not only for millions of people in Spain, who are seeing how this great game improves their lives; but for the progressive forces throughout Europe and the world, who look at us and see in us a model to follow and a source of strength,” he proclaimed before a dedicated plenary session and to which for a few minutes he managed to inject a shot of optimism.
The PSOE congresses are known how they begin, but never how they end. And, of course, the forty-first went from resignation to euphoria in a matter of hours when its leader reminded the delegates and observers that the adversary does not forgive them “for the victory of the 2018 motion of censure, nor for us winning in 2019.” …Of course they don’t forgive, what a disappointment they got! Win on June 23, 2023.” And especially when he valued the militancy of a party that “always shows its face.” In the good times. And in bad times, when we have to defend the truth against lies, democracy against authoritarianism and good management against negligence, as the Government delegate in Valencia, Pilar Bernabé, has done in the face of the DANA crisis.
Nor did he want to ignore the complicated international situation and the role that social democracy must play (“I am talking about eradicating poverty and violence, humanist governance, Artificial Intelligence, migratory flows or the climate emergency”), as well as of the flags to be raised by the Spanish socialists to respond to the “chilling rise of the authoritarian values of the far-right international” that in Europe has doubled its support in the last decade and has already reached hundreds of national, regional and municipal governments.
A leader without internal response and without a replacement in sight
In Spain, he recalled that he has done so hand in hand with what was once a state party that, in his words, has not only “resigned from fighting the battle of ideas against the extreme right, but has embraced them.” He was referring to the PP, of course, to the “conservatives who are letting democracy fall in the face of authoritarian drift” and to the liberals who “have perverted their principles to walk alongside propagators of hate.” A tandem that, he stated, “poses a clear threat” in the face of which today it is more evident than ever, that in Spain, Europe and the world there are only two paths: “That of hate or that of hope; that of the past or that of the future; that of the extreme right – and the right hostage to it – or that of social democracy.”
By the time Sánchez shouted that to be a socialist is to be on the right side of history, the plenary session was already handed over to a leader who, as was demonstrated again in the 41st Federal Congress, continues without an internal response or replacement in sight. It was at that moment that it became a beacon and inspiration of global social democracy, after remembering the times in which the PSOE looked at its sister Central European and Scandinavian parties “with envy and admiration for bringing their policies to Spain and it is the inspiration for others. Today we are a pillar of social democracy in Europe and in the world. We have to assume that historical responsibility. And for that reason, we are obliged to innovate and get it right.”
This is how Sánchez changed the mood of the previous days and went on the offensive to raise the morale of the troops who ended up standing and with their fists raised while the Internationale sounded. “This is the congress of pride and ambition of what is to come. We have to make optimism fashionable (…) The gray of pessimism of the ashes that the right is left with. And we are not going to reduce the pace, but rather accelerate it with more force if possible. Who is going to defend democracy, if not the socialists? Who is going to defend work and decent wages, dignified old age, equality, the right to housing, social justice and the end of privileges?
And he said even more: “That’s why they want to knock us down. And that is why we have to move forward. To each of their attacks, a progressive policy as a response to be approved in the BOE: Do they attack feminism? We will respond with the renewal of the State Pact against Gender Violence. Do they attack the labor reform? We will promote the reduction of working hours. Do they attack the housing law? We will prohibit the sale of public housing to vulture funds. Do they single out migrants or stigmatize the LGTBI community? We will defend that diversity makes stronger, richer and more tolerant societies. Do they raise doubts about the sustainability of pensions? Year after year we will fill the pension piggy bank while we revalue retirements. Do they call the climate emergency climate dogmatism? “We will continue to reindustrialize and decarbonize our economy based on social and territorial justice.”
The recently re-elected leader of the socialists used a tone more typical of an imminent electoral campaign to encourage his own, and even introduced the commitment to create a large public housing company to “build and manage” and respond to the housing emergency in thousands of Spaniards, which is, without a doubt, the problem that worries citizens in the face of the unstoppable escalation of rental or purchase prices.
Willing to put the lights on and with all the territorial barons present – with the exception of the Aragonese Javier Lambán and the Castilian-La Mancha Emiliano García Page – he encouraged the PSOE to think about the upcoming regional and municipal elections and set the goal of recovering the territorial power that the socialists lost in 2023. “This is a winners’ party. You don’t come here to dream utopias, but to make them come true. We are the left without nostalgia because what is to come will be much better. And we have only one priority, to win the regional, municipal and general elections again in 2027. That is the priority. And even if they hit us and raise the noise even more with the mud machine, to Aznar’s infamous cry of whoever can make him do it, we will respond with whoever can vote, who votes so that there are progressive governments.”
It also happens that the design of the new Federal Executive, with which Sánchez has put on his hard core and incorporated some new faces from the territories, already reflects some of the struggles for the leadership of the different federations and which It will be the position of the leadership before the primaries prior to the regional congresses. Those who have entered the new leadership as a quota from Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León at least come from the sector critical of the current general secretaries, as is the case of the Leonese Javier Cendón, facing Luis Tudanca, whom in Madrid considered amortized.
Starting today, the battle for territorial leadership begins. And the regional congresses will not be, with some exceptions, a military parade with hardly any organic changes as was the case this weekend.
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