Pedro Sanchez announced this Saturday to a group of journalists his intention to promote a profound “discursive renewal” of the PSOE, during the party’s Federal Congress which will be held at the end of November in Seville.
A renewal that will not end in speech, but will affect prominent names in the Socialist Executive, indicate the sources consulted by EL ESPAÑOL, while within the party there are increasing voices that question the work of the current Organizing Secretary, Santos Cerdán.
Not only because he got into too many puddles and multiplied the fires, to carry out the task that Sánchez entrusted to him: to promote in the PSOE federations like-minded leaders who are today more critical of the coalition government for its pacts with the separatists.
To the plumber and foreman Pedro Sánchez’s blood also exploded in his hands. Koldo affair. As reported by EL ESPAÑOL, Santos Cerdán contacted on August 28 from Mexico with Koldo Garciathe advisor to former minister José Luis Ábalos who is at the epicenter of the corrupt plot.
After this telephone call, Cerdán tried to negotiate a pact of silence with Koldo, to prevent Ábalos from revolting against the party and opening the door to thunder, after being singled out by the audit commissioned by the current head of the ministry, Óscar Puente.
A task for which the PP identified Cerdán as “Mr. Wolf”, in honor of the Tarantino character who was responsible for doing the dirty work for thugs and gangsters.
Already last February, when the scandal broke, those around Ábalos recalled that it was Santos Cerdán himself who introduced Koldo to Ferraz, after having served in the PSOE of Navarre.
Cerdán also did not gain much sympathy in broad sectors of the party, having become the main designer of the agreements with Junts and ERC, among which amnesty and privileged financing for Catalonia.
After the general elections of 23-J, when Pedro Sánchez needed the support of Junts for the inauguration, Santos Cerdán went to Brussels to negotiate and be photographed with Carles Puigdemont, under a huge photo (which the PSOE disappeared in the version broadcast to the media) of a ballot box from the illegal referendum 1-O.
Meeting in Brussels between Carles Puigdemont and Santos Cerdán last February.
Europe Press
The Navarrese politician always has his bags packed, ready to attend the monthly meetings with Puigdemont in Switzerland, which serve to close Parliament. On September 20 the last meeting took place in the Swiss capital, where Cerdán went to try to get the Junts to support the 2025 general budgets.
He came back empty-handed. After Salvador Illa took away the presidency of the Generalitat, the fugitive from Justice demanded that Cerdán, before taking further measures, that the Government respect all the signed commitments. Starting with amnesty, since the Supreme Court determined that it could not apply to crime of embezzlement for which Puigdemont is accused.
Added to all this is the hidden war that Santos Cerdán is maintaining with the most critical federations of the national leadership, in order to impose leaders similar to Ferraz in the regional congresses that will be held after that of Seville.
Castile and León
The last episode occurred in Castilla y León, where the Autonomous Executive Committee of the PSOE approved the primaries for the end of October with 81% of the votes, and Cerdán ordered their cancellation. Ferraz is hiding behind the fact that, according to the law, these elections must take place after the Federal Congress, which Luis Tudanca denies.
Sources from the regional executive admit that this is a situation of total rupture with Ferraz. Tudanca denounced that Cerdán’s entourage had been maneuvering against him for months, even with family and personal attacks and leaks to various media, to try to wear him down and cause his fall from the post of secretary general after 10 years.
Aragon
Former president Javier Lambán has taken a step back and will not run for re-election as secretary general, although it is not excluded that at the regional congress he supports a candidate similar to Ferraz’s assertions (whose candidate could be the spokesperson for the minister, Pilar Alegria).
Lambán did not spare criticism of the Santos Cerdán team, which in June 2023 dynamited the candidacies raised by the leadership of the PSOE in Aragon for the general elections of 23-J. This happened again this year with the European lists, in which Ferraz beat Rosa Serrano against Isabel García. “Activism has been humiliated. Madrid’s explanation is even more scandalous,” denounced Lambán.
Madrid
The leader of the PSOE in Madrid, Juan Lobato, was in favor of holding the regional congress before the federal congress, with a model similar to that defended by Luis Tudanca in Castilla y León. However, after a phone call last Wednesday, he agreed with Santos Cerdán that the vote at the Madrid congress would take place in early January.
Aware that some voices in Ferraz consider his leadership dampened and are looking for an alternative candidate, Lobato wants become a Sánchez. Imitate the strategy of the president of the government, when resurrected from its ashes after being defenestrated by the regional baronsLobato is increasing his meetings with his members, who are ultimately those who will decide the outcome of the Madrid congress.
Castile-La Mancha
Emiliano García-Page is without a doubt the baron The socialists are the most critical of Pedro Sánchez’s pacts with the pro-independence parties. Despite this, Page’s team does not criticize Cerdán’s work: “There was no interference in our organization,” say the sources consulted.
Cerdán “approved and verified” the schedule for holding the regional congress on January 18 and 19, during which Page will present his candidacy for re-election as secretary general. Until recently, the name of La Mancha’s Housing Minister, Isabel Rodríguez, was widely heard as Ferraz’s favorite to “move Page’s chair.” But this operation seems ruled out: the leadership of the Castilian-Manchego president is today indisputable.
Valencian Community
In the Valencian federation, the renewal of the leadership took place last May in an agreed manner, after the former general secretary, Ximo Puig, decided to step back after losing the presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana.
In an extraordinary congress, chosen by Sánchez, the Minister of Science and Universities, Diana Morant, was elected general secretary and included her two possible rivals: the provincial secretaries of Valencia and Alicante, Carlos Fernández Bielsa And Alexandre Soler (former mayor of Elche). Even if internal tensions resurface during provincial congresses. Although he was suspended from activism, former minister José Luis Ábalos participated in several meetings with activists this summer, to try to maintain his influence over the Valencian PSOE.
Andalusia
The general secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, Juan Espadas, is totally aligned with Pedro Sánchez and Santos Cerdán. It’s no secret that he aspires to land in Madrid to head a ministry, during the next government overhaul.
However, the critical sector of the party, organized on the platform Andalusian socialist baseswants to fight and force the holding of primaries against the current leadership, to which he blames the poor electoral results which made it easier, in 2022, for Juanma Moreno to obtain an absolute majority.
Murcia
The relationship of the current leader of the Socialists of Murcia, Pepe Vélez, is today much better with Cerdán than with the former Organizing Secretary, José Luis Ábalos. “With Ábalos as party organizational secretary, relations with Murcia were good, but distant and it was difficult to sympathize with him. With Cerdán the relationship is much closer,” explains a concerned member of the PSOE regional executive.
Vélez maintains a “direct line with Cerdán”, convinced that Fernando López Miras will call early elections before Sánchez: “In Andalusia the elections take place in 2026, so we hope that Alberto Nuñez Feijóo force the calling of elections in the region of Murcia and Castile and León in 2025, because polls give them an absolute majority in these communities. With this strategy, Feijóo would try to highlight a change in the political cycle,” these sources indicate.
the Basque Country
Large sectors of the PES have opted in the past for two of Pedro Sánchez’s rivals for the national leadership of the party, Patxi López and Eduardo Madina. However, Eneko Andueza’s current team today is one of the most Sanchists of Spain and praises Santos Cerdán with the faith of the convert.
It is not for nothing that Pedro Sánchez takes particular care of his relations with the lehendakari Imanol Pradales (who, after the Basque elections of 21-A, renewed the coalition with the Basque socialists) prevent the PNV from hearing the songs of the sirens of Feijoo and move away from the “inauguration block” in Madrid.
Balearic Islands
The President of the Congress of Deputies, Francine Armengoltoday maintains control of the PSIB-PSOE of the Balearic Islands through an intermediary: the socialist spokesperson in Parliament Iago Negueruelawho was Minister of Labor in his government.
But things can change, since Koldo affair This also put Armengol in difficulty. The President of Congress assured that, when she presided over the Balearic Government, she never spoke with Koldo García to buy masks of the corrupt conspiracy. However, the UCO report highlighted affectionate WhatsApp messages in which the two discussed this issue: “Okay, darling, I’ll let you know,” the conspiracy agent said.
With information from Óscar Estaire, Manu Noguer, Irene P. Nova, Raquel Miralles, Jorge García Badía, Alberto Morlanes and Jorge Lisbona.
