There are barely three weeks left before the PSOE holds its federal congress in Seville and the DANA that hit the Valencian Community has also shaken the political forecasts of the socialists. In various sectors of the party, the idea is beginning to germinate that maintaining the event, which will take place from November 29 to December 1, is not the best of all ideas.
“No one sees you at a conference in three weeks and everyone comments on that,” says a party baron in a conversation with this newspaper. “We are not here for congresses, people are very touched,” adds another senior official, this time from the Valencian PSOE.
Despite the noise within the party, Ferraz has not yet transmitted to his supporters clear signs that the congress would be postponed, although the sources consulted do not affirm that it will be maintained either. “The PSOE no longer matters now. “Only the tragedy that awaits us is important,” they say within the federal leadership.
During the Executive meeting held this Monday – without all its members, because some ministers were coordinating the government’s action against DANA – the possibility of postponing the congress was not discussed. They believe there is still time to tackle this issue, but the complications are evident.
On the one hand, there is the logistical part. They will physically attend the Seville congress 1,095 delegatesin addition to dozens of journalists who will meet for more than a weekend at the Congress and Exhibition Center in the Andalusian capital. Many of those who will attend have already paid for their hotel.
On the other hand, the Federal Congress is the starting signal for a total political change within the PSOE: there will be changes in the Executive which will turn into changes in the Government, and after that, the different regional congresses will begin to stand to renew the party in all territories.
These problems push the party to want to maintain the celebration of the event, but many in the PSOE have disconnected from the preparation and wonder if the situation generated by DANA will have been alleviated by the end of the month. “There’s not really a conference atmosphere”adds a party baron.
DANA in the presentation
For now, the machinery continues to operate, albeit slowly. This Tuesday, Ferraz addressed to the federations the presentation of the framework of the Federal Congress. This is the basic document on which we will work these days, and it should have already been presented, but the party decided to delay it to include more contributions from experts.
Since receiving the document, local assemblies have three days present amendments in case they wish to include a correction or a new point. In other words, the deadline ends at the end of this week, which is particularly complicated to manage for places where DANA has caused major damage.
As the Valencian PSOE explains, in their federation they barely pay attention to internal issues. However, they add that they would like something related to DANA to be included in the presentation. The document sent by Ferraz only refers to this meteorological phenomenon in the context of the climate emergency.
“We must include a reform of emergency plans,” says a senior Valencian PSOE official. “Given what happened, we cannot depend on a regional government to move to emergency level 3. This should be assumed, by law, by the central government”he adds.
What he understands
The presentation of the framework includes several measures aimed at strengthening the social character of the party. On the one hand, socialists want to protect, among other things, abortion, same-sex marriage and the public nature of housing protected in the Constitution.
Among the new features also includes the creation of a citizen seat in the Congress of Deputies and the Senate to encourage citizen participation. The seat would not have the right to vote, but it could be used by different representatives of civil society to ask questions of the government during monitoring sessions or present non-legislative proposals.
As for the regional fundingthe wording is sufficiently ambiguous so that it can be supported by all the territories of the PSOE and none of them take a position against it, as happened with the question of the Catalan quota. The presentation commits to reforming the current funding model to include more resources for all autonomy.
This was one of the most controversial points, due to the opposition of many territories to the document agreed by the government with the ERC, and there were many expectations as to how this issue would be processed internally. However, DANA shook all that up, reorganized priorities and no one talks about regional funding these days.
