The PSOE militancy, with 87.13% of the votes (92% counted), has ratified the government pact with Sumar and has supported the negotiation with the nationalist and independence parties to make the investiture of Pedro Sánchez possible. Participation in the consultation carried out during the last week was 63.4%. 11.93% of members who voted did so against, according to data provided by the party. The total census of militants with the right to vote was 172,600 and included members of the PSOE (about 160,000), the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC, about 12,000) and the youth of both formations. Among PSC members, 85.4% voted in favor and 12.2% against, with a participation of 61.6%.
“Do you support the agreement to form a government with Sumar and obtain the support of other political parties to achieve the necessary majority?” That was the question that the bases had to answer, in which an opinion on the amnesty was not expressly asked for those accused of the processes, the main demand of the pro-independence parties and which the PSOE leadership, after rejecting it until the July elections, now accepts. Participation in the November 2019 consultation on the pre-agreement with Unidas Podemos to form a progressive coalition government was 63.01% and obtained support of 92%. The socialist sector critical of the amnesty hoped that the rejection among the bases would now manifest itself in a high abstention (no one predicted a significant vote against), but finally the participation has even been slightly higher than that of four years ago.
![Socialist militants vote in the San Fernando de Henares group (Madrid), this Saturday.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/5B79T3OeM_Mm2FPoTYiUd3fTCAs=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/EAY74KHKDBG7JHSB2BZCGBX5W4.jpg)
The result of the consultation, which began on Monday and lasted six days – the first five online and this Saturday in person – is binding. After his defense of the amnesty in the federal committee of the PSOE a week ago, with the argument that it is done “in the interest of Spain and in defense of coexistence between Spaniards,” Sánchez sent a letter to the militants and asked them that they vote “with high vision.” Other leaders of the party, such as the ministers and members of the federal leadership Félix Bolaños, Pilar Alegría and Miquel Iceta, the spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, or the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, have voted in person and have encouraged speak out in favor of “a progressive Government for the next four years.” The PSOE wants the investiture to be held next week, although to achieve this it will first have to unravel negotiations with Carles Puigdemont, the leader of Junts who is a fugitive in Belgium.
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![The secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, votes this Saturday at the PSC headquarters in La Roca del Valles (Barcelona).](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/cc21wsZIlMATuOETyP7VmE8Bfk8=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/7BULRSJ43BC5REI3ZMOUX7JYJA.jpg)
The most lagging militants paraded this Saturday through the town’s houses to vote the old-fashioned way: at the ballot box and in person. Shortly after ten in the morning, the first members of the group from San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) arrived. “I voted in favor because I trust the president. Around me, social policies are more worrying than the amnesty, which will help improve the relationship between Spaniards,” said Sebastián Gómez, a 45-year-old logistics technician. “The alternative is a Government of the PP and Vox and we have already seen in recent months what they are dedicated to,” agreed María Teresa Polo, a 69-year-old retiree.
The pulse was similar about 20 kilometers away, in the Alcalá de Henares group. “I vote for a progressive and stable project, that means that I will be certain that I will continue collecting the pension and that they will not touch my rights,” explained Andrés Poza, a 74-year-old pensioner. “You don’t have to be a Seneca to know that the amnesty, like the pardons, will contribute to normalization in Catalonia,” he added. “The amnesty is controversial but necessary,” agreed Santiago Alonso, a 21-year-old law and politics student. The Madrid socialist federation has 13,500 registered members.
In Castilla-La Mancha, whose president, Emiliano García-Page, has emerged in public as the main critic of the amnesty, the general feeling of the dozen militants consulted—out of a total of 12,000 in the entire community—continued to be favor of supporting the pact, but it was not difficult to find militants against it. “It’s very easy: I voted no. I totally subscribe to Page’s words,” said Victoria Pontón, a 63-year-old real estate salesperson, in the PSOE group in Guadalajara. “I am against many situations that are occurring, not only because of the amnesty,” agreed Aurelio Luna, a 69-year-old retiree. On the other hand, Eva Cezón, a 54-year-old hospital worker, highlighted her “unconditional support for Pedro.” [Sánchez]”. “I voted yes because of social policies and because there are issues like the amnesty that concern us all, but I am more concerned about cultural censorship, as we have seen that the PP and Vox have done,” intervened Sergio Jaraba, administrative officer, 29 years.
In the same province, in Azuqueca de Henares, Susana Torres, 63 years old and unemployed, abstained: “The question has not been formulated well, I agree with the agreements with Sumar and that Spain is diverse and plural, but All the conditions demanded by the independentists generate a lot of distrust in me,” he stated. “Amnesty or not, what matters to citizens is the welfare state and we are going to improve it. The amnesty does not worry me, but quality public services do,” said José Sánchez, a 79-year-old retired truck driver. His wife, Rosi Muñoz, 76, reflected: “We have to keep moving forward over the next four years. “If we want a better Spain we have to give in a little.”
Arguments for and against
The Andalusian socialist federation is the largest in Spain, with nearly 45,000 members. In the town house of the Centro group – the largest of the PSOE in Seville and to which Alfonso Guerra, María Jesús Montero and the Andalusian socialist leader, Juan Espadas belong – there was hardly any movement this Saturday. A third of its 300 members had already voted electronically, and of those who went to do so at the ballot box and spoke with this newspaper, all of them voted in favor. “What this country needs is for there to be stability and for continued work to defend the working class,” said Salvador Fernández, 57 years old and director of the neighborhood post office. Regarding the amnesty it was also clear: “Catalonia deserves a climate of stability and to overcome a period in which there has been too much tension.” Fernández is aware that in Andalusia the PP is going to use these pacts with the pro-independence parties as political ammunition against a PSOE that has not yet established itself electorally. “We have to do pedagogical work,” he says.
![Socialist affiliates vote this Saturday in Seville.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/F5JaNFGeubQNHbBJHPZpUaHRs8E=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/ERVBLBA3V5HHZH2A2AAEHE67JQ.jpg)
The consolidation of social rights is the reason why Alicia Vañó voted in favor. She also agrees with the amnesty: “It is the best solution, it facilitates coexistence.” Héctor González believes that the agreement with Sumar “is positive”, but recognizes that “the rest has more complicated elements.” Even so, he believes that, “as the months go by and Spain does not break up, tempers will calm down.”
In the Jaén group, one of the most powerful in Spain, the general feeling was also in support of the investiture agreements. José Sánchez, 53 years old, who has run for primaries on several occasions to lead the municipal PSOE, stated: “It is worth renewing a progressive government that has been so effective socially and economically and that assumes that the situation “In Catalonia it is resolved with political measures and not just repressive ones.” Regarding the amnesty, “a controversial issue that may have legal adjustment problems,” he believes that “it can contribute to ending the unilateral dynamics of the pro-independence parties.” Fernando Calahorro, a member of the PSOE from Jaén who led the party in the province between 1978 and 1982, predicted: “The amnesty improves, and almost solves for quite some time, the relationship with Catalonia.”
![Ballot with the consultation on militancy in a socialist group in Seville, this Saturday.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/d7K_0_rdB0Md1R2oIM74MYxVLs0=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/LXJQWX5TFRFBZEZL3W4JIV3HEE.jpg)
But there are also militants critical of the policy decided by Ferraz. For example in Castilla y León, with 10,000 registered members. The professor of Economics at the University of Valladolid Zenón Jiménez Ridruejo, 76 years old, a member of the provincial PSOE, has decided to leave the party after four decades as a member. “When an electoral program is made, it has to be fulfilled. It cannot be that three months later the opposite is done. At no point was the amnesty proposed: all voices insisted that it was illegal,” recalls the economist. Ridruejo, who defines himself as a “social democrat, defender of education and public health, the dependency law, social housing,” remarks: “I have not changed my attitude. One thing is amnesty and another is social policy.” He would only support legal pardon for processes if “the benefiting party gave some compensation”, such as renouncing unilateralism and accepting the Constitution.
This position is repeated in Ágreda (Soria, 3,000 inhabitants), whose mayor, the socialist Jesús Manuel Alonso, 57, rejects the approach to the Catalan independence movement. “Amnesty is an imposition of a person who is technically a criminal [Carles Puigdemont], and therefore the most democratic thing is that there was an electoral call and the people voted whether they agree or not,” argues Alonso, who was a senator for seven years. He, who voted against in the consultation that ended on Saturday, fears a hellish legislature: “We may be permanently subjected to blackmail from parties that will try to take advantage of law after law, budget after budget,” he points out. And he assures that, if he occupied a seat in Congress, he would maintain his refusal of the amnesty, even if the PSOE fined him for it: “I would very gladly pay 600 euros.”
With information from Eva Saiz, Ginés Donaire and Juan Navarro.
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