The former Minister of Transport and former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, will be one of the names that integrate in the first positions the list of the Socialists to the Congress of Deputies on July 23. After two years away from the front line of the party, although with his act of deputy, Pedro Sánchez and Ximo Puig's PSPV make use of him in a candidacy that is expected to be led by the Minister of Science, Diana Morant, and in which all points out that the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, will also be there.
The name of Ábalos will be proposed and endorsed in the assemblies that the Valencian socialists are holding this Monday and Tuesday and the bulk of this list will be approved by the PSPV this Thursday to be endorsed in the Federal Committee next Saturday. Who was one of the main pillars of sanchismo returns not only to revalidate his seat but to activate the bases after the regional and municipal territorial debacle.
The departure of Ábalos from the Government and from the leadership of the PSOE came as a surprise two years ago. On July 10, Sánchez announced a government reshuffle that left Ábalos, until then Minister of Transportation, without a portfolio.. Two days later, faced with the setback received, the Valencian politician submitted his resignation to the Secretary of Organization and became a deputy further removed from the circle of the president, who is now demanding him again.
“The best lists possible”
Who will not go on that list is Ximo Puig. The leader of the Valencian socialists already announced last week that he would remain in Parliament to lead the opposition to the government headed by Carlos Mazón.
As general secretary of the PSPV, he will have the responsibility of recovering Valencian socialism, although he wanted to value the results of 28-M, which, although the Government did not give him, were the “best result since 2007”.. “We will make the best possible lists to consolidate” that “powerful” electoral ground and go to seek the vote of the 220,000 left-wing people who stayed at home and the 50,000 Ciudadanos voters who also did so,” warned Puig.