The minister who aspires to close the circle at the head of Aragonese socialism

She was the first socialist woman candidate for the Zaragoza City Council, the first Aragonese minister and now aspires to become the first to lead the Aragonese PSOE, a complex party, prone to internal confrontations and which in the nineties became “the Beirut of Spanish socialism.” A formation that only a political survivor can tame, as happened with Marcelino Iglesias and later with Javier Lambán.

Now, if she becomes general secretary of the Aragonese PSOE, Pilar Alegría (Zaragoza, 1977) would also bring a novelty that reflects the importance that the territory has in this party: she would be the first person in more than 30 years to lead the formation without having previously presided over a provincial deputation.

At 47 years old, Alegría would complete a circle at the head of the Aragonese PSOE that – after being a national deputy at just 31 years old – took her to the Organization Secretariat of Javier Lambán in 2014, regional councilor with the Ejean leader and later appointed by him to lead the PSOE candidacy in Zaragoza in the 2019 municipal elections.

It was precisely the design of the electoral list in those elections that broke the relationship between Lambán and Alegría: the candidate challenged her general secretary and opted for names different from those proposed by the organization. Faced with the dilemma, Ferraz gave his support to the current minister as expected and finalized the divorce between them. Politics has these things: not long before, Alegría had been the visible face in Aragón of Susana Díaz in the fratricidal primaries that Pedro Sánchez won.

Lambán’s break with the federal leadership came in any case from before, in 2017, when in the primaries that the party was going to hold that fall, Sánchez launched an alternative candidacy to the then general secretary, despite his status as regional president. Lambán defeated Carmen Dueso and won the first battle against Ferraz. But the war continued.

In the municipal elections of the 19th, Pilar Alegría defeated Jorge Azcón -something that the sector of the Executive spokesperson will not stop repeating in case she takes the reins of the Aragonese PSOE-, although the support of Albert Ribera’s Ciudadanos for the popular deprived the winner of becoming mayor.

It was a hectic period for Alegría, who in just half a year held three positions: regional councilor, councilor in Zaragoza and, since February 2020, Government delegate in Aragon. With this appointment of Pedro Sánchez, the woman from Zaragoza confirmed herself as the antagonist to Javier Lambán who was increasingly at odds with Ferraz. The President of the Government did not even bother to consult with the Aragonese leadership about the election of Alegría. A symptom of the schism between Madrid and Zaragoza: two years earlier, Sánchez and Lambán had agreed on the name of the delegate, then Carmen Sánchez.

Furthermore, with her escape from the City Council, Alegría beheaded a municipal group designed by herself in Zaragoza, with much more technical than political weight, and left the field open for Azcón, now president of the Government of Aragon.

At that time, Javier Lambán hid his distance from Pedro Sánchez’s policies in the central government less and less, to the same extent that Alegría was gaining strength in Sánchez’s Executive: Minister of Education, spokesperson in the federal executive of the PSOE and spokesman for the central executive.

Already fully aligned with the Alto Aragonese federation against those of Zaragoza -controlled by Javier Lambán- and Teruel -with Mayte Pérez at the helm-, Alegría is now trying to open a gap in the Zaragoza province and in its capital, aware that its fate is passing to gain enough support in the main pool of Aragonese PSOE militants.