We had to wait more than ten years to see the two sitting in the first rows of the plenary session of a federal congress of the PSOE. former presidents of the Junta de Andalucía Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán, who were convicted of fraud in the ERE case. His final sentence is pending review after the erasure of crimes applied by the progressive majority of magistrates of the Constitutional Court (TC) last July. However, the PSOE has not waited for Justice to issue its final ruling to vindicate a hitherto traumatic past with the rehabilitation of its most symbolic figures.
This Saturday, both former Andalusian leaders, who were presidents of the party at the federal level, have once again taken their seats among the guests of the 41st Federal Congress of the PSOE, which is being held from Friday to Sunday at the Palace of Congresses and Exhibitions of Seville, Fibes, in which Pedro Sánchez will be re-elected for his fourth term as general secretary.
The presence of Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñánwho had retired as PSOE militants after their accusation in the ERE case, symbolizes the closing of the open wounds as a result of the judicial investigation and the subsequent sentences of the Provincial Court of Seville and the Supreme Court that were a bombshell. on the waterline of the party. The congress represents the definitive rehabilitation of the current leaders with the darkest past of the Andalusian PSOE.
Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán entered this Saturday the room where the opening ceremony of the Congress is being held in the company of the general secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, Juan Espadaswho will preside over this congress of which he acts as host, as leader of the federation that hosts it.
From the rostrum, Espadas’ first words were to thank Chaves and Griñán for their presence at the 41st Federal Congress, two “very special” guests. He referred to them by their first names to give them “recognition”: «Thank you Manolo [Chaves]thanks Pepe [Griñán], thank you Magdalena [Álvarez]Thank you Carmen [Martínez Aguayo]Thank you Michelangelo [Serrano]». Other former senior socialist officials convicted of the ERE case were left out, such as the former Employment Counselors José Antonio Viera and Antonio Fernándezwhom he does not consider exonerated from guilt in the irregular distribution of aid. Nor has the Constitutional Court done so. Espadas praised the former Andalusian presidents as “public servants” and highlighted the work carried out by Andalusia.
Chaves returned to the headquarters of the Andalusian PSOE
«The ruling of the Constitutional Court represents a turning point in Andalusian politics“The beginning of the end of the PP Government cycle in Andalusia begins,” predicted Manuel Chaves after the review of his sentence by the TC last July, in his first press conference at the Andalusian PSOE headquarters in Seville after 14 years old.
In the presence of the general secretary of the party, Juan Espadas, who was president of the Board for 19 years (1990-2009), general secretary of the Andalusian PSOE for 14 (1994-2010) and federal president of the PSOE between 2000 and 2012 accused the Popular Party of having tried to “erase 30 years of socialist management” by orchestrating a “political and media operation in judicial garb” in the ERE case that “threw dirt into the gears of the political adversary.”
In that appearance last July, former President Chaves expressed his desire to rejoin his party. «I have never separated myself from politics. I am a politician by vocation, I have followed it day by day. I have always felt like a socialistwith a license and without a license. I want to return to the PSOE, to do what the PSOE wants. I make myself available. I want to work for the party in whatever Juan wants. [Espadas] and the leadership of the PSOE of Andalusia,” he proclaimed.
The case of Griñán is different. The former president has not emerged from his public isolation since the Supreme Court ratified the sentence that sentenced him to six years in prison for a continuous crime of embezzlement. He has not broken this custom even when the TC revoked said sentence, considering that his fundamental rights had been violated, forcing the Seville Court to issue a new sentence starting practically from scratch.
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