Ferraz will force territorial leadership changes if Sánchez manages to be sworn in
The organic renewal processes planned in the socialist federations after the loss of institutional power on 28-M will be frozen until the investiture process of Pedro Sánchez is resolved. This is indicated by sources from the Ferraz executive, who also do not rule out competition between lists or, even, having to force the convening of a territorial congress. It is a prerogative that the federal leadership has if there is no agreement, according to the same sources, slipping the possibility that the Aragonese baron, Javier Lambán, resists. The reinforcement of Pedro Sánchez after 23-J has made him shield his leadership in the party, not only stopping any internal movement, but with the ability to condition them in the different territories.
The name of Ignacio Urquizu, in the critical current against Ferraz, is one of the ones that have sounded the most in terms of Lambán's succession. The mayor of Alcañiz and former deputy was already vetoed by the executive to remove him from the electoral lists proposed by the PSOE of Aragon for 23-J. The bet of the current leadership to take the reins of the party in this territory is the Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría. From their environment, they have been in charge of emphasizing that their candidacy in the general elections collected 25,000 more votes than Lambán's in the regional elections. The Aragonese baron, for his part, responded in public that the candidacy headed by Alegría was “one of the ones that have improved their results the least compared to the regional elections in May”.
Extremadura is another of the territories pending organic renewal. Despite having established the change in the general secretariat for this autumn, it has been decided to postpone the process for the replacement of Guillermo Fernández Vara pending the formation of the central government. In the Valencian Community, after the loss of the Generalitat by Ximo Puig, there are more unknowns. The former president of the Generalitat will be a senator by autonomous designation, like Lambán, Vara and Juan Lobato from Madrid. In this last federation, an internal pulse has been allowed to appear, with some of its voices demanding an internal reflection on the results of 28-M.
The decision of the Madrid secretary general to occupy a position of senator by territorial designation in the Upper House has contributed even more to inflame the spirits. Lobato has explained this decision to accumulate charges due to his desire to have more focus, but not everyone in the PSOE-M shares it. They warn that she can thus give more space to the leader of Más Madrid, Mónica García, as the true leader of the opposition to Isabel Díaz Ayuso and her alternative in the face of the next elections. After 28-M, it is no less. A veteran of the party focuses on the need to open an internal reflection and be accountable for the results. In seats, the PSOE managed to go from 24 to 27, although in absolute numbers it only grew by 1,674 votes compared to the early elections of 2021. In addition, it was once again the third force, behind Más Madrid, which maintains the leadership of the opposition. “We are 270,000 votes away from the results of Ángel [Gabilondo] in 2019 and Lobato is not the head of the opposition,” stresses a socialist deputy. To this negative reading, add the fact that “Podemos has disappeared” without implying a substantial improvement in its results..
Faced with the barons touched by the results of 28-M, Pedro Sánchez has managed to strengthen his leadership on the back of a result with which he not only resists and blocks a change of government, but also grows in votes and seats. Four points more than in the last elections and gaining one seat, reaching 121. If a blockade occurs, before a hypothetical castling of Carles Puigdemont's party, which maintains the impossible price of “amnesty and independence”, Sánchez will once again be a candidate and his political future will be decided after once again casting the cards.
Sánchez has become even more empowered than he was and both his leadership and his parliamentary group are perfectly cohesive. All this has ruined Feijóo's trick to force a kind of internal rebellion in the PSOE, putting pressure on the barons with the aim of raising an abstention to let the most voted list govern. All of them, including the critics Javier Lambán and Emiliano García-Page, have avoided objecting to an investiture supported by the nationalist and independence bloc.. Likewise, they reject a kind of grand coalition with the PP and, above all, Vox's proposal that Feijóo seek a majority with the vote of “five or six good Socialists”. “I am a democrat even before I am a socialist, which means, firstly, respect for what the citizens voted for and, secondly, complying with the rules. Also those of the political parties themselves. The turncoat does not go with me”, responded the president of Castilla-La Mancha last Thursday.
Instead of fissures appearing in the face of an electoral disaster like that of the municipal and regional ones, the current PSOE comes out reinforced and armored in the face of any critical current. Already to avoid hypothetical fractures, Sánchez drew up some electoral lists with people of his total confidence. Much greater armor than in the 2019 elections. In fact, on this occasion, Ferraz chose to impose his candidates on various lists, both from territories led by critical barons and by like-minded.