The PSOE of Castilla y León faces weeks of uncertainty and internal anger after Ferraz’s Ethics and Guarantees Commission suspended the schedule of its regional congress, scheduled for January 25 and 26 in Palencia. Its celebration is still pending since the suspension decided by Ferraz, which provoked a public and unprecedented confrontation between Luis Tudanca and the federal leadership of the party, is still in force and there are no new dates for the congress.
The leadership of the Socialists of Castilla y León continues to wait for “internal democracy, ballot boxes and respect for the organs and activism of Castilla y León to be returned to us”, waiting for a timetable to be notified and how it will take place . approved. . The decision of the Ethics and Guarantees Commission means that the process can begin no earlier than December 2, one day after the end of the federal congress in Seville, Sunday 1, which accelerates deadlines that are currently completely uncertain.
The vetoed schedule included voting in the primaries for secretary general of the PSOE of Castilla y León on November 9 and 16, in the first and second rounds, with the approval and candidacy process beginning on October 8. Thus, the new or old leader of the Castilian and Leonean PSOE would go to Seville newly elected. The rest of the dates are also pending, such as those of the framework presentation that the Socialists of Castilla y León were going to debate at Christmas and now we do not know when it will take place.
While the critical sector and Ferraz were talking about agreeing on a new timetable, the autonomous management believes that it must be Madrid that proposes and approves it since, they insist, their process was correct and they do not no longer have the organs in force after having formally convened the autonomous congress. All this despite the fact that 11 members of the regional executive of Luis Tudanca, including its president Eduardo Morán, presented a letter to Ferraz requesting the suspension of the calendar, alleging that it had not passed through the executive as required. Several sources present at the regional committee point out that, curiously, Eduardo Morán, former president of the Provincial Council of León, voted in favor of the calendar the day before signing the document. And regional leaders indicate that the procedure was similar to that applied by the Secretariat of the Ferraz Organization to convene the federal congress.
Luis Tudanca chose to change his profile after the controversy and after several interviews with the national media, he chose to stop speaking in public about the open conflict with Ferraz and, in particular, with the “environment” of Santos Cerdán, secretary of the Federal Organization. . This does not mean that the party has stopped bubbling internally, even if the white waters are bubbling more internally. After the explosion of the conflict, the weapons are more veiled than ever and everyone knows that there will be a confrontation during the primaries, even if some voices are demanding an agreement taking into account the possibility of elections.
The critical leaders consulted by this media point out, by first expressing their “respect” for Tudanca, that they adopted a bad strategy by accelerating the primaries, recognizing that they did not yet have a candidate, which would have allowed the federal leadership opts for the current secretary general as continuity due to the proximity of possible elections. With what happened, however, they believe that there will surely be a candidacy against Tudanca, or against his entourage, if he ultimately decides not to run.
Currently, the regional PSOE continues the process of electing its delegates to the federal congress. Luis Tudanca himself will participate on behalf of the Burgos socialists and one of his internal “enemies”, Javier Alfonso Cendón, will do the same for the Leonese socialists. Tudanca’s number two in the Cortes de Castilla y León, deputy spokesperson Patricia Gómez Urban, will lead the delegation from Valladolid.
Meanwhile, each sector continues to insist that it has the majority of party support heading into the primaries. The leaderships of León and Valladolid are leading the front against Tudanca and the current regional leaders, those with the most activists. But this does not mean that support by province is homogeneous. In Salamanca, provincial leaders have supported Tudanca, but at the city level they are closer to the critical sector.
Luis Tudanca has explained in recent days that his decision to continue or not, after 10 years as secretary general, would be announced once the process of the Congress, now suspended, begins, so this will also be extended in time if he there is no change of mind. Uncertainty persists among socialists in Castilla y León.
