He was the only baron to bet on him, but now the president no longer answers the phone

Last Friday, war broke out between the PSOE of Castilla y León and the party leadership. The PSCyL attempt bring forward the primaries in the Community to October It was immediately suspended by Ferraz, who denounced that it was against the statutes to summon them before the Federal Congress in November.

A movement of the Castilian and Leonese socialist leader, Luis Tudanca, who was seen like a game to avoid having rivalsgiven the lack of time to present candidates, and thus remain in office, given the intentions of the party leadership to maneuver to replace him and renew the leadership of the PSCyL.

Tudanca’s attempt to advance the primaries, and thus the Autonomous Congress, ultimately came to nothing, but The reaction in the ranks of the PSCyL was furious, in support of its leader and criticizing the “absurdities” carried out by Ferraz.while management justified the decision.

A distance between the autonomous federation of the PSOE and the leadership which is not limited to the political sphere, but is closely linked to the gradual erosion of relations between Tudanca and the president of the government, Pedro Sánchezuntil less than two years ago, close allies and, increasingly, close enemies.

An eroded idyll

Tudanca, elected secretary general in October 2014, almost 10 years ago, began his journey at the head of the party in the Community be a loyal squire of Sánchezbut in recent years, the idyll between the two has broken down.

The leader of Burgos came to power just three months after the current president of the government took over the leadership of the PSOE, in July 2014, and their paths were closely linked ever since.Tudanca shows himself at all times as a fervent defender of the political line set by Sánchez.

Precisely, in the internal crisis of the party which led to the resignation of the leader of the PSOE, in October 2016, Tudanca was the only autonomous baron who clearly remained on their side and fervently supported him during the primaries that brought him back to power less than a year later, in June 2017.

A relationship that has become even more idyllic after the historic victory of the PSCyL in the regional elections of July 2019the first in 32 years, which, although it did not allow Tudanca to govern after the pact between Alfonso Fernández Mañueco and Francisco Igea, strengthened the figure of the Burgos. But the romance won’t last long.

Progressive distancing

The turning point in the break between Tudanca and Sánchez was the harsh defeat of the socialists in the regional elections of February 13, 2022during which the party lost seven seats and the PSCyL leader threatened to resign, although he ultimately decided to continue.

A step aside which, at that moment, This would have pleased federal leaderswhich already saw him incapable of proposing an alternative in the Community. Tudanca’s continuity began to make him an uncomfortable element for Ferraz, with a unclear PSCyL in the face of what was the first agreement between PP and Vox in Spain.

Tensions from then on only increased and reached a critical point when, ahead of the July 2023 general elections, The federal leadership imposed Javier Izquierdo as number one on the party lists for the Senate, displacing Sara Galván to number 2, by regional criteria.

A movement that Tudanca did not like, who was “disappointed and indignant” with the changes promoted by what, until recently, was its close ally.

The fight with León

The PSCyL general secretary would hit back at Ferraz a few months later, in January this year, after the dismissal of Andrea Fernández de León as secretary of Equality of the party at national level.

Tudanca decided to include him in the Regional Executive, in what was interpreted as an obvious challenge to Sánchezby integrating into its hard core a figure that the president had gotten rid of.

Furthermore, the leader of Burgos maintained fierce struggles with the PSOE of Leónthe most important group of the party in the Community and whose leader, Javier Alfonso Cendón, is a man of total confidence of Sánchez and the organizing secretary of the formation, Santos Cerdán.

The situation was particularly tense after Tudanca’s decision to remove Leonese lawyer Nuria Rubio, Cendón’s right-hand woman, from the leadership of the Cortès socialist group. A decision to which the PSOE of León responded, which rebelled against the man from Burgos and demanded that he respect the autonomy of the party.

His proposal to declare April 18 a public holiday in the Community also generated tensions with the Leonese federation, to commemorate the Leonese Cortes of 1188. A proposal that Tudanca did not reject but demanded that it be done “from the bottom up” due to Cendón’s haste to deal with him.

Besides Cendón, another personality interested in overthrowing Tudanca hovers over León: the former president of the government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who continues to control the Leonean PSOE in the shadows.

His influence is still very present and was decisive in the election of Leonese Nicanor Sen as Government delegatein December 2023, replacing Tudanca’s number two, Virginia Barcones, thus removing a significant part of the power from the leadership of the PSCyL.

Oscar Puente

Zapatero and the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, with maximum influence in Valladolid, They have been maneuvering for some time to overthrow the man from Burgos.

The one who was mayor of the capital Valladolid between 2015 and 2023 became a figure of Sánchez’s greatest trust and one of the most important people in Castilla y León within the PSOE.

Although he categorically ruled out replacing Tudanca, being aware that he is perceived as a centralist in certain areas of the Communityis in favor of a renewal of the autonomous direction of training which allows the PSOE to compete with a PP which has governed in the Community for 37 years.

The controversies

The erosion of relations between Tudanca and Sánchez also coincided with the outbreak of two notorious controversies within the PSOE of Castilla y León which were a real test for the training.

In February this year The secretary general of the Socialist Group in Cortés, Ángel Hernández, was arrested for gender violencewhich was characterized by the maintenance of a resounding speech in favor of equality between men and women, a key battleground for socialists.

Hernández resigned from all his positions and, while it seemed that his memory had been left behind, this summer another case, even more delicate if possible, broke out. The spokesperson for the Socialist Group for Agriculture, Juan Luis Cepa, He was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old minor he met through the Grindr application..

Once again, the regional leadership had to mobilize and Cepa resigned and left the party, but the damage to the image of a party which seems condemned to eternal opposition within the Community was already done. and Tudanca was forced to face new controversy at a particularly delicate moment for training.

Sánchez does not respond

The cancellation of the PSCyL regional primaries by Ferraz meant the emergence of a relationship which has deteriorated more every day for two and a half years.

This same Monday, Tudanca assured in an interview that Sánchez does not answer the phone and that he has been trying to speak without success for “almost a month” with the President of the Government, whom he recalled for his support “when almost no one believed in him”.

Also He said he had heard “names, leaks and candidates” for a year. launched from the Secretariat of the Organization to replace him with the sole objective of “destabilizing” his federation.

“I wanted to speak here calmly about the present and the future of the party.”“, tell him my perception and listen to his,” he says. However, the response was to suspend the primaries, “preventing” activists from having a “voice”, which Tudanca criticized the Secretary of the Organization, Santos Cerdán. .

“As we dedicated ourselves to working and fighting for Castilla y León against the first far-right government that this country has had in autonomy, others were dedicated to destabilization”was settled.

In addition, Tudanca assured that “loyalty is not submission and unity is not uniformity”. “I don’t like two people deciding in an office,” he denounced, further increasing tensions with Ferraz after the cancellation of the regional primaries.

Ten and the “little chairs”

For his part, the mayor of León, José Antonio Diez, supporter of Leonese autonomy and historically opposed to Cendón, Sánchez’s man in León, stressed that the differences between Ferraz and the PSCyL They react to “little things inside, little chairs and little chairs”.

“I don’t think there is a better alternative than Luis Tudanca, because he is the only one after Demetrio Madrid to have won a victory against the Popular Party in Castilla y Leónwhere the Popular Party obtained the absolute majority almost consecutively,” he said.

Díez assured that it was “a way of playing dirty” by the Secretary of the Organization, Santos Cerdána game he claimed to be “used to” in León. “I experienced it myself and I believe Luis Tudanca is absolutely right,” he said.

Regarding the position of the provincial secretary of the PSOE in León, Javier Cendón, assured that “Publicly, on some occasions, he showed his position against Tudanca and he is one of those who are in Madrid, in Ferraz, manipulating with the secretary of the Federal Organization.

“We are talking about one of the most important positions in the party and someone who has made many mistakes and continues to do so,” while waiting for Cerdán to “fall” in the Federal Congress November because “it would be good for the party”.

Vox’s mockery

The open war situation between the PSCyL and Ferraz was also exploited by Vox, formation harshly attacked by Tudanca since entering government in April 2022to ironically attack the man from Burgos.

The training published on its social network account the design of a ‘Luisito Grip Glue’ guaranteeing that it is “suitable for all types of surfaces”ironic about Tudanca’s intention to remain in power, despite his distance from Sánchez.

A relationship between the general secretary of the PSCyL and the president of the government who finds himself in his most critical moment since all the bridges seem to have evaporated after the cancellation of the primaries promoted by the socialist federal leadership.

The future of Tudança We will finally know after the Federal Congress in Novemberin primaries and an autonomous Congress during which Ferraz will try by all means to overthrow the man who was until recently a faithful ally of Sánchez.