The resignation of the secretary general of the PSOE of Madrid, Juan Lobatowas a real surprise for the government and the federal leadership of the party. According to his sources, no one expected this to happen this Wednesday and it will now be necessary to appoint a manager to temporarily lead the PSM.
Sources confirm that it is still too early to know who will lead said manager. “We discovered it in plenary, thanks to your letter”they recognize.
Lobato communicated his resignation through a letter sent to activists and made public this afternoon. He had not called any press conference and was not supposed to speak on the subject and the news hit the government and Ferraz’s leaders in the middle of the government control session being held in Congress, just as Or Pedro Sanchez I was talking.
The manager will, in any case, have a very short life. This weekend will be celebrated federal congress of the PSOE in Seville and, from this moment, the process of renewal will begin in the different territories.
In the case of Madrid, on December 5 (next Thursday) the primaries will be convened and the process of collecting support will begin, which will end on the 16th with the presentation of the candidates. If the current Minister of Digital Transformation, Oscar Lopezis the only candidate for head of the PSM, he will be named secretary general of the Madrid socialists.
If he is not the only one, there will be a campaign that will culminate with the votes of January 4 and 10. The manager will therefore remain in post until mid-January at most.
In his letter, Lobato explains that he is resigning to “put an end to a situation of confrontation and serious division that was occurring within the party, which was only harming the PSOE in Madrid.” Without directly attacking the federal leadership, Lobato emphasizes in his letter Sánchez and his people.
“The PSOE has always been an open organization, which thrives on debate between all. A party which must make decisions by majority and these decisions must be argued, shared and not imposed,” he wrote, welcoming “a PSOE in which those who do not agree with the opinion of the party leadership in each territorial area are neither attacked nor defamed”.
At the party leadership, it was expected that the battle to lead the PSOE in Madrid would be bloody and, as this newspaper has already explained, Sánchez had ordered his people to postpone the confrontation until after the federal congress of this weekend.
What they didn’t expect was for Lobato to pre-empt the process by resigning. The question that now remains unanswered is whether he will continue to exercise his functions as a member of Parliament. Madrid Assembly and as a senator (he is by autonomous designation) in the Upper House. Although it is predictable that he will leave both positions, the letter does not dispel doubts.
