The PSOE avoids the clash with Díaz and frames its criticism in its strategy against Iglesias

In Moncloa and Ferraz the electoral mode is already fully activated. The sight set on the municipal and regional elections of May 28. The goal is to try to minimize the damage. For this reason, the war that Yolanda Díaz maintains with Pablo Iglesias and Podemos is trying to be seen from the sidelines. It is followed with “attention” and “respect”, but avoiding that it splashes them. For this reason, the socialist sector of the Executive defends Pedro Sánchez from the accusations of macho launched by the second vice president, but avoids entering into a confrontation with her. Yes, they have bothered and they have not liked it, but it does not go further. Their darts are framed in the struggle with Podemos and the need to establish their own profile in the face of the risk of being blurred by the purples and by the socialists. For this reason, they believe raise their voice now looking for their own.

“Of course he is macho, just like almost everyone is,” Díaz said in an interview on La Sexta.. He described Morocco as a “dictatorship”, with the sensitivity of these positions in the relationship with the neighboring country. And she explained that if she had been president of the Government, she would have dismissed the minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska after the tragedy of the Melilla fence.

Díaz's attacks on Sánchez's politics and decisions are considered by the socialists as “personal opinions” in his role as leader of Sumar. The ministers of the PSOE the position of the Government and the figure of the president of the Government, but they frame the darts that the second vice president launched in that tough fight that she maintains with Podemos and in the need to claim her own space. It is a double-edged relationship that the socialists with Díaz go through: they need it, that is why they measure their criticism or the censorship of their words, but at the same time they cannot seem the same, that is why they differ.

Because what matters in La Moncloa and in Ferraz is that “that space to our left is linked to the general ones. It's the most important thing”. That is the real headache, and they know that this will be ruled based on how the dispute now in force is resolved.

La Moncloa's strategy involved launching Díaz in his dispute with Podemos, a scenario that reached its zenith in Vox's failed motion of no confidence. The socialists prefer that she be their ally against the bloc of the right. And they want us to join Sumar because, they assume, if there are more than two left-wing parties it will be extremely difficult to try to re-edit the coalition.

They distance themselves from her, qualify and impose their position on state policies such as Morocco, but they avoid going to the clash, knowing that they need their political project to do well. In fact, this Monday, regarding the accusation of Sánchez being a sexist, the socialist ministers showed their surprise and even went so far as to ask him to explain “what are these sexist actions”, but in no case was a request for rectification articulated.

Moreover, Minister Grande-Marlaska, despite what Díaz expressed, wanted to downplay the matter yesterday from Melilla, assuring that he maintains “a very good relationship with the second vice president.”

The socialist ministers closed ranks with Sánchez, showed their surprise and defended that they have not seen “any macho action”. Regarding Morocco, being a matter of State policy, they did want to be more blunt, show greater disavowal, trying to put out any fire before it asked to be lit: “It is a personal position. Of course it is not the position of this party or of this Government”, was the unchecking in the words of Pilar Alegría, spokesperson for the PSOE and Minister of Education.

In any case, the purpose of the Socialists is not to encourage this controversy, not to give more ammunition, and to avoid getting even more involved in the Díaz-Iglesias struggle. “We are to other things”, say the socialists, alluding to the election campaign and milestones such as the recent pact with ERC and Bildu for the approval of the Housing Law. They seek to show that the political battle should be fought by Sumar and Podemos, while they focus on announcements or measures such as the one that Sánchez carried out this Sunday, when he said that he will put 50,000 Sareb homes for rent at “affordable prices”. “Useful policy”, the socialists say.