Although the process to elect Javier Lambán’s successor at the head of Aragonese socialism does not formally begin for a week, the only two candidates who have made their aspirations public, Pilar Alegría and Darío Villagrasa, are taking positions. Meanwhile, a possible agreement between both parties remains up in the air for the 18th Congress of the PSOE of Aragon that avoids the primaries.
It will be next Friday – January 24 – when the race is official, with the opening of the process, as agreed in the Regional Committee of the party on November 22. The application period will then open and it will be time to collect endorsements. Once it is certified that – as is assumed – both have sufficient numbers, they will be officially proclaimed candidates for the General Secretariat of the party. If nothing changes, Aragón will be the exception in terms of the regional candidates proposed by Ferraz who hold the position of minister, since in the rest of the communities they have remained the only options.
The most striking thing in recent days has been the notable shift in the (pre)campaign strategy by the mayor of Bujaraloz. Villagrasa reserved the first days after his announcement on December 28 to tour local groups of different sizes. He did it alone, accompanied only by his partner or a companion. Almost the only image that has emerged was published precisely by his partner and showed both of them on the road, in the Hyundai of Villagrasa and in what remembered the hegira of Pedro Sánchez in 2017, which ended with the current president as leader of the party after overthrowing Susana Díaz in the primaries.
However, the regional deputy has taken a turn this week, with two notable changes. On the one hand, he has chosen to give more publicity to his movements among member groups and, on the other, he has placed emphasis on the candidate’s main advantage: his status as a regional deputy and specifically as deputy spokesperson. This gives him an unrivaled speaker for, as he stated on Monday in a meeting with journalists. “Fortunately, I have a seat. “I have the opportunity to look Azcón face to face and tell him that the PSOE is the alternative and that we are going to beat them,” he highlighted.
This Wednesday he used that loudspeaker in the Cortes of Aragon to attack the regional Executive of the PP for renouncing the 2025 Budgets and hours later, in the afternoon, he met with about 150 militants – the vast majority, grassroots – in the PSOE headquarters in Conde Aranda and there he made public his first proposal as a candidate: promote a large municipal group in Zaragoza that unites all the neighborhoods of the capital and “decentralize” the same. headquarters.
Despite this change, Villagrasa continues to prefer to go it alone, in line with his message that he aspires to position himself as a third way between the two opposing sides in the Aragonese PSOE, the Lambanista and the Sanchista.
Faced with this, Pilar Alegría’s team faces the period prior to the official candidacy with a high degree of confidence. Sources close to the minister acknowledge that her main handicap is that from Monday to Thursday she is greatly limited by her role in the central government, where in addition to holding a portfolio of the weight of Education, she is also the spokesperson for the Executive. However, the great reception that – according to his team – he has found in the events planned between Friday afternoons and Sundays maintains security regarding his options.
The high degree of knowledge that Alegría has among militancy and her past as a candidate who already defeated Jorge Azcón in an election (the 2019 municipal elections in Zaragoza) plays in her favor. Despite this, it needs to reinforce its support in the province of Zaragoza and especially in the capital, where the most prominent socialists in most of the groups continue to be on the side of the still general secretary Javier Lambán and, therefore, will transmit their vote in favor of Villagrasa. Another thing is that this message resonates among the grassroots members: in the capital, the militants visit the groups much less frequently than in other places, which brings a high degree of uncertainty to their final vote.
The agreement between candidates, the elephant in the room
Meanwhile, the elephant in the room remains a possible agreement between the two parties. Publicly, both sides deny that there has been any contact, which suggests that in any case they will hurry until later. In the aforementioned meeting with journalists, Darío Villagrasa – forced by the cross-questions of communication professionals, more than by his own will – refused to close the possibility of an agreement. “Not at the moment, but it is a possible scenario like any other,” he acknowledged. A message that is not clear to those around them, since it can be interpreted as a sign of weakness.
In Alegría’s circle, in this sense, they remember that conversations between the two candidates do not have to start before February 16, the date on which the first round of voting is scheduled. A symptom of the confidence with which – regardless of whether it is reality or desire – they face the primary process. “Until the Regional Congress is held, there is time to negotiate,” say sources close to the minister. The congressional event will be held on March 15 and 16, just one month after the vote.
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