The swords are in full swing in the PSOE, no matter how much they try to hide the internal crisis behind closed doors. The Socialists, in one fell swoop, have lost seven of the ten autonomous communities in which they governed, to which are added provincial capitals of great importance such as Seville or Valladolid.
Despite the silence that is kept in Ferraz and the socialist federations, each and every one of the eyes of the barons of the party are fixed on Moncloa. Both those of critics of Sánchez’s management and of those who supported him after the triumphant motion of no confidence in 2018.
Apart from more or less sincere loyalties, the authority of the PSOE general secretary and his policy of pacts with Podemos, Esquerra and Bildu has been more than questionable within the party on March 28. After these elections, the Socialists will maintain for the minimum and with the need for Asturias and Navarra pacts (and here, with the ‘Abertzale’ left). Castilla-La Mancha is the only region in which they retain an absolute majority and it is thanks to a few hundred votes in the Ciudad Real constituency. Emiliano García-Page from La Mancha has been precisely during the last five years the greatest internal critic of Sánchez, whom he has publicly reproached for his pacts with Podemos and with the independentistas. Once his autonomous mandate has been revalidated, it now remains to verify the participation of García-Page and the degree of his support for Sánchez in the face of the general elections in July.
In the PSOE they still lick their wounds and avoid, for the moment, throwing salt on them. But one of the hypotheses after an unfortunate 28-M is that, sooner or later, the regional and municipal officials removed from their institutional positions will demand responsibility from Madrid. It is this potential discontent that also justifies Sánchez’s decision to advance the general elections, despite the showcase that the presidency of the European Union would offer him until December. A call to tighten ranks at a very delicate moment for the party due to the loss of a large part of its electoral power and when the fate of the president affects the organization as a whole.
Unlike what happened in 2019, when the municipal elections widened the red map and ratified Sánchez’s victory in the general elections held a month earlier, in April, this Monday was a day of bitter hangover for the socialist barons. On Sunday, Guillermo Fernández Vara, from Extremadura, was left on the road, who has already requested reinstatement in his position as forensic doctor, although the presidency of the popular María Guardiola is pending the agreement with Vox. Fernández Vara, always distinguished by his loyalty to the party, had attenuated his distrustful position towards Sánchez’s strategy and hoped to retain a historic PSOE fiefdom.
“You have spoken”
The veteran socialist leader did not put hot cloths to “failure.” “You have spoken and what you have decided is that I no longer be the president of the Board,” he settled, visibly moved to learn of the scrutiny. The Valencian Ximo Puig, before learning of the president’s decision to advance the elections, pooled the “mistakes” and appealed for serenity to hit on self-criticism. Together with both, Javier Lambán from Aragon, Francina Armengol from the Balearic Islands and Concha Andreu from La Rioja also lost their footing this Sunday, while the Canarian Ángel Víctor Torres rushes his options to try to preserve, in a complicated challenge, the Canarian Executive.
Sánchez had the gesture this Monday to recognize what he came to interpret as an unfair departure of his barons despite his “good management.” A punishment, he acknowledged, partly due to the mobilization of the right to punish the coalition government. Neither, as Fernández Vara has already made clear, nor Puig, nor Lambán, nor Armengol have the intention of continuing with their organic responsibilities. But the new electoral challenge will foreseeably lead to postponing the organization of territorial congresses for some relays that, even under the impact of the bump in the polls, are intended to be ordered.
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