The general secretary of the PSPV-PSOE, Ximo Puig, announced this Saturday the call for an extraordinary congress in the first quarter of next year to renew the leadership of the Valencian socialists. “It is time to take a step back so that the project can take two steps forward,” said Ximo Puig, who is resigning from running for re-election as general secretary of the second Spanish federation in the number of socialist militants, after 13 years in the post. The more than 200 delegates present in the national committee of the party, the first after the elections of May 28, have burst into prolonged applause, reiterated on several occasions during their speech, as a way of recognition and farewell to the one who has He was the Valencian president between 2015 and 2023.
Before the event, the groups of militants were abuzz with comments about the person who could succeed the Morella politician at the head of the party and the probable alliances. Some asked if anyone had seen the Minister of Science and Universities, Diana Morant, 43, enter, identified as the best-placed candidate as she had the support of Pedro Sánchez, who appointed her, and Puig. The Valencian minister entered, accompanying Puig and the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, into the crowded room of the UGT headquarters to start the event half an hour late.
“The renewal of the project requires new ideas, new leadership that begins in the new year to combat the reactionary UTE” of the Valencian government of the PP and Vox, said Puig, 64, who called for “overcoming inertia, fleeing from sterile confrontations and learning from past mistakes.” He was referring to the desert journey that the Valencian socialists went through when Joan Lerma lost power in the Generalitat in 1995 and did not regain it until two decades later. The party was divided into several opposing sectors with very marked personalisms. Now, a sector of the party expresses the convenience of a woman, for the first time in the history of the PSPV-PSOE, being the leader of the new stage.
Puig, senator and regional deputy (a seat he intends to leave), has detailed that next Monday he will propose to the national executive commission to activate the procedure to convene the congress in “the first quarter of the year” 2024. In addition, he has announced that On Monday, a new leadership of the socialist parliamentary group in Les Corts Valencianes will also be appointed, beheaded after the departure of the spokespersons Rebeca Torró and Arcadi España, to the Secretariats of State for Industry and Territorial Policy, respectively. Both are completely trusted by Puig.
There are three main legs in the internal support structure in the PSPV: the ximists; those close to the socialist leader of the province of Alicante and deputy in Congress, Alejandro Soler, and the followers of the mayor of Mislata and secretary of the province of Valencia, Carlos Fernández Bielsa. The two-legged support grants many possibilities to a candidacy, although the final result depends on the vote of the militants (close to 18,000 in the Valencian Community). The possibility of a two-headed structure has been raised, with a candidate for the Generalitat (Morant, for example) and a different general secretary, a formula that Soler has not rejected, although the negotiation has only just begun. Bielsa asked for generosity and to let the militants express themselves.
Santos Cerdán insisted in his intervention that the national leadership will be respectful of the decision adopted by the Valencian socialists, denying possible agreements regarding Morant, which the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, reinforced by also giving him the portfolio of Universities in the new cabinet. “You have to have high-mindedness to renew the process. And of course we will respect what the militants decide,” said Cerdán, a position of maximum trust of Sánchez, who recovered the socialist leadership thanks to support for the militancy.
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Before the committee, Morant declared: “In this country we are in a new stage. It is the first national committee that is held after having a progressive Government again, and we have to continually contrast that way of governing that President Sánchez has with the Mazón government, the government of the right and the extreme right in the Valencian Community” .
In his speech, Puig also criticized himself for the loss of power on 28-M, although he recalled that the socialists obtained 50,000 votes and four more seats than in 2019: “We were not able to contextualize the call, valencianize the political space; It costs, due to the reality of the Valencian Community. We were incapable of separating ourselves from the immense noise that the media and political right promoted, of fleeing from the emotional atmosphere that blocked reason.” The regional elections were about the future of the Valencian Community and the answer was “let Txapote vote for you,” he added. “In perspective, we had plenty of confidence regarding the management carried out, although the barometers valued our management, with the best marks. We lacked an anticipatory vision,” and added: “And the person most responsible for not having seen that issue is me.”
The possibility of the government appointing Puig as chief ambassador of the permanent delegation of Spain to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), replacing Manuel Escudero, has emerged.
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