The primaries called by the PSOE in Castilla y León were canceled by the federal leadership of the party. The decision on the calendar and the primary process which began on October 8 was taken by the regional committee meeting this Thursday, in a decision contested by some of its members and whose leadership of the party at the state level analyzed its “legality”. Ferraz stopped this attempt to hold this vote before the Federal Congress which will be held the last weekend of November. The regional secretary general, Luis Tudanca, regretted this decision and asked that they be summoned “as soon as possible”.
The federal leadership has been analyzing the decision of the Castilian and Leonean PSOE since it became known and on Friday evening its suspension was confirmed. A suspension which, according to Tudanca, is “subjective” and is not provided for in the party statutes.
This Thursday, the PSOE of Castilla y León held an autonomous commission that approved a primary calendar that could certify the re-election of Luis Tudanca as general secretary before the Congress, which will take place at the end of November. The regional congress itself met at the end of January in the city of Palencia. However, Ferraz directed that these processes be addressed after the Seville conclave.
According to sources in the federal leadership, the time has come to debate ideas to confront Congress and it is the political orientation that was transferred from Ferraz and that proposed by the Secretary General, Pedro Sánchez, during the last Federal Commission held in September.
Autonomous committee
Concretely, the Autonomous Committee of the PSOE of Castilla y León established this Thursday the primary calendar to elect the candidate for the position of regional secretary during the congress to be held on January 25 and 26 and in which only one of the six members of the Federal Party will participate. native of Castilla y León, Javier Izquierdo, who expressed his disagreement with said calendar for “interference” in the federal congress process.
Originally from Castile and León, they are part of the Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE, alongside Javier Izquierdo, the ministers of Valladolid Ana Sánchez and Óscar Puente; Esther Peña of Burgos; Iratxe García, also from Valladolid, and the representative of Palencia, María Luz Martínez Seijo.
During the Autonomous Committee, the primary calendar was presented and approved by 105 votes in favor and 14 against, which establishes the presentation of precandidates from October 8 to 15, after which a primary process will take place, if there are more a candidate, on November 9 in the first round, and on the 16th in the second.
During the meeting, Javier Izquierdo asked for the floor to express his opposition to this calendar, considering that it “interferes” with the federal calendar, since the Congress to elect the general secretary of the PSOE will take place on November 29, 30 and 1 December in Seville, even if the executive chaired by Luis Tudanca considers that the deadlines comply with the regulations.
Besides Izquierdo, several socialist officials present at the meeting also expressed their disagreement with the schedule established in the Community, and some of those who left the meeting received the agenda of the primary process by means of a QR code.
According to party sources, it is not wise to call for a process of selecting a candidate for the post of regional secretary through primaries alongside the process of configuring the federal structure.
Ferraz’s resolution
In the resolution of the Commission of Ethics and Guarantees of the party, to which elDiario.es had access, it emphasizes that, interpreting the Statutes and regulations “in what presents obscurity”, they consider that “the way to respect our processes, currently articulated, from top to bottom, the resulting legitimacy of the bodies that will govern the next organic process that will be elected to the Federal Congress, and the statutes that are approved in the Federal Congress, the supreme body to determine the will of activism applicable to each biological period”. For this reason, they revoke the calendar of the PSOE of Castilla y León to “correspond to the resolutions adopted by other bodies, in accordance with this interpretation, especially when they affect the primary procedures in which this body is the maximum guarantor”.
The Committee recognizes that the question “is not a simple question since the Statutes provide that” the regional, national or autonomous Committees will convene their respective congresses which must be held after the Federal Congress, within a period of less than 90 days. For this purpose, the month of August will not be a working day”, without specifying whether this convocation must be made within this period of 90 days “after the Federal Congress” nor if, when we speak of “Congresses”, only the reference is made to the celebration thereof or to the entire process which leads to the celebration of the congress.
But they emphasize that they understand that “the entire congressional procedure corresponding to levels below the federal level must be held once the Federal Congress is held, therefore from December 2, 2024” and, therefore, be governed by the rules. “resulting from the 41st Federal Congress and approved by the Federal Congress.” This is why they are suspending the calendar of the PSOE primaries of Castilla y León, knowing that they cannot be convened with the rules of the previous congress, and must be with the new departures from Seville.
In the resolution he proposes that in the next Federal Congress, to avoid new problems like these, that this be clarified in the next statutes “and, in any case, clarify that this interpretation concerns the current statutes, which in all case, a Once the Congress is held, it will be subject to the development of the new statutes and the interpretation that the new Guarantees Commission may make of them, for the next organic process after the holding of the 41st Congress.
Regional management defends the calendar
The leadership of the PSOE of Castilla y León defended the calendar of the primaries and the Autonomous Congress, scheduled for January 25 and 26, 2025, and denied that this process contravenes what is established in the party statutes. In statements to EFE, sources from the Autonomous Directorate affirmed that the Federal Directorate will not intervene in this process, because it lacks the legal tools to do so, knowing that it is the Autonomous Committee that is responsible for convening the Autonomous Congress and to settle the question of the calendar.
In the autonomous direction, they propose that legally “it is not possible” for Ferraz to revoke a vote like the one yesterday, in which 105 members of the Commission voted for the calendar against 14 votes against and 11 abstentions, so that they understand that democracy would be “unprecedented barbarity”.
The main argument of the PSOE of Castilla y León to accelerate the deadlines for the Autonomous Congress is that it fears that the President of the Council, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP), could advance the elections in this Community, where he currently governs. alone after the break with Vox, precisely to take the PSOE on the wrong foot and in the middle of the pre-congress process.
