The PSOE of Castilla y León has taken advantage of Christmas to accelerate conversations and try to agree on a unified list for the primaries and the congress that will decide the future leadership of the party, for 10 years in the hands of Luis Tudanca from Burgos. According to sources from the two sectors in contention, so far these have not come to fruition and the possibility of seeking a third way with a name that avoids primaries has been opened.
On one side are Luis Tudanca and his faithful, and on the other the general secretaries of the PSOE in León and Valladolid, the deputy Javier Alfonso Cendón and the minister Óscar Puente, who are betting on the mayor of Soria, Carlos Martínez, as the new regional leader . In a telematic meeting held this Saturday, as elDiario.es Castilla y León has learned, the opposition of critics to Tudanca continuing in office was ratified, but a door was opened to agreeing on another name other than Soriano as successor. That of Esther Peña, current spokesperson for the federal Executive of the PSOE, national deputy and general secretary of the Burgos socialists, as well as a personal friend of Tudanca, has been put on the table. Neither Cendón nor Puente participated in the meeting, but the leaders of the PSOE of Soria and some of the main socialist mayors of the community did.
The conversations to agree on a unitary list have not come to fruition so far due to the disagreement over the figure of Luis Tudanca. Critics consider that he should step aside and leave new air in socialism that will allow us to reach the elections with the renewed project. Those loyal to Tudanca value his work and having returned an electoral victory to the socialists in 40 years and offer a pact so that he is not the candidate for the Presidency of Castilla y León, but that he retains organic power, something that critics they reject.
“You have to be generous and know how to negotiate a good situation for the party,” they emphasize from the critical sector, who point out that Tudanca can be a political asset in other different positions. His bet is Carlos Martínez, whose management at the head of the Soria city council and his several absolute majorities stand out, but his name does not attract all the support for placing him in the orbit of Ferraz, from which he distances himself. And that is when a third way has been opened, agreeing on a name that will satisfy the ‘tudanquistas’ and the socialist leaders most related to Santos Cerdán, Secretary of Organization of the party and who twisted the hand of the PSOE of Castilla y León by delaying the primaries to January after a loud controversy over the chosen dates. Peña combines friendship and relationships with Tudanca and his team and at the same time is part of Pedro Sánchez’s federal Executive, where he regularly appears at Ferraz’s press conferences.
From the official sector, Tudanca’s willingness to agree, “from here”, on the future of socialism in Castilla y León is valued, rejecting impositions that come from Ferraz. If the talks do not bear fruit, there would be primaries, a calendar that opens on January 7. Several general secretaries of the provinces are betting on a pact that prevents the party from a possible drain resulting from the regional power struggle, which goes down to the provincial levels or the main cities, “we can all win if we are generous,” he summarizes.
The pressures to reach an agreement seek to avoid, on the one hand, a public battle for power that will further wear down the socialists in 2025, which may contain an electoral advance in Castilla y León, if the president of the Board Alfonso Fernández Mañueco deems it so. And on the other hand, more internally, old grudges become revenge and organic positions are removed, leaving the party weakened in the eyes of public opinion.
The deadline for an agreement begins the day after the Three Kings holiday, which is when Tudanca has announced that he will make public his decision whether or not to attend the primaries. The talks continue although mistrust between the two sectors remains. They agree on one thing: the ideal is to agree on a unitary list, but the dispute over who is still up in the air. In his assessment of the political year, Tudanca once again pointed out the primaries as an essential element of the socialists, and assured that “nothing happens because there are several” candidates.
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