For Madrid socialism, Madrid is synonymous with defeats and a succession of failed bets since the infamous “Tamayazo”. With the exception, of course, of Ángel Gabilondo, who was the only one to touch the presidency of the Community several years after this transfuguism operation which prevented the change of political sign within the regional government in 2003. was in 2019, when the former Minister of Education won at the polls against a then unknown and inexperienced Isabel Díaz Ayuso, but the sum of the three right-wing parties that then participated in the elections – PP, Ciudadanos and Vox – l ‘dismissed. of the Porte du Soleil.
Four years later, and after a campaign personally designed by the guru Iván Redondo, then chief of staff of Pedro Sánchez, the PSOE also obtained its worst historical result with Gabilondo and even lost the leadership of the left by placing itself behind Más Madrid in number of votes. The Socialists have a total of 29 years of opposition to the right-wing governments of the Community of Madrid led by Alberto Ruíz Gallardón, Esperanza Aguirre, Cristina Cifuentes, Ángel Garrido, Pedro Rollán and Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Juan Lobato was the last to try, with little success, to steal the jewel of the PP in the 2023 elections. And it is already an open secret that the federal leadership is not satisfied with his work against the queen of Sol. although Ferraz initially doubted whether he should promote an alternative candidate for his leadership at the regional congress to be held in the first quarter of 2025 or wait to fight the battle when choosing the electoral poster, today it is the fact that there will be primaries. Several names have already appeared. Some because they have been taking the temperature of groups for months and talking to the totems of socialism. And others because, even if it is only a product of political-journalistic speculation, they do not mind being in the swimming pools.
Javier Ayala, the current mayor of Fuenlabrada, who already competed and failed against Lobato in the last regional congress, was one of the most popular names. And although a few months ago this option did not seem bad among some of Ferraz’s leaders, today within the federal leadership they do not believe that he is the person who can take over the regional government by the right. Not to mention the cost that the loss of an internal primary would have for one of the main mayors of the PSOE.
Lobato himself believes that if Ayala were the alternative to challenge him for leadership, his chances of remaining as general secretary would increase. And even more so if the candidacy of the mayor of Fuenlabrada was sponsored by the federal leadership. “Anyone who presents themselves today as a victim of an organic operation orchestrated by the federal government has done a large part of the campaign. And this is something that Pedro Sánchez has, from his own experience, very internalized”, say sources from the Madrid federation in reference to the internal process in which the current president of the government prevailed over the candidacy of Susana Díaz, promoted by a coalition of interests of the socialist leadership, Fran Martín, current government delegate in Madrid, is also not a name that arouses too much enthusiasm among the leading executives, despite the fact that some attribute intentions to him. This regard And the same thing happens with other supposed candidates who have circulated in Madrid circles, such as that of councilor Enma López, who will occupy a permanent position in the new executive coming from the Congress of Seville – it is likely that. ‘as a spokesperson – but for now only that because, depending on what you consider, he still lacks the size and volume to lead something.
If there is a name that has been worrying the President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE for months, it is that of the current Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, as sources confirm reliable. The one who was Sánchez’s chief of staff until the last overhaul of the Council of Ministers thus appears among the possible candidates for the Community of Madrid in the regional elections of 2027, something on which he did not want to comment with this newspaper .
The closest entourage of the President of the Government also affirms that, until now, nothing has been decided and that this melon will open during the passage of the Federal Congress which will be held in Seville the last weekend of November. What they attest is that the name of López is part of the options considered by Sánchez, who assured the Madrid activism of his minister, and also that the president wants a party man with a tough profile to face Ayuso in 2027 .
Rubalcaba Outstanding Student
López, along with Óscar Puente, is currently the most political and biting minister in the government and those who appoint him consider that he is the one who can best respond to the constant provocation of an Ayuso who has made the confrontation with the Spanish government is its only reason for being and also for being in politics. Those who know the Minister of Digital Transformation well believe that López could not refuse a proposal to play the Madrid president as an antagonist and that, surely, he will not find “a nobler cause to which to devote the rest of his political life “. » .
Having been organizational secretary of the PSOE under Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, from whom he learned almost everything, Óscar López is not very motivated by the internal affairs of the party, to which Lobato has devoted a large part of his time since he was elected leader of the Madrid party. socialism, it is therefore not excluded that there is an agreement between the two. Indeed, in statements to this newspaper just over two months ago, Lobato himself said that he would have no problem withdrawing when choosing the candidate for the Community of Madrid if the party presented as an alternative to a minister with an “unquestionable” profile.
In the socialist universe, some believe that with López the battle against Ayuso would be very different from the one led today by Lobato and that there would be much more possibility of recovering the ground that the left lost in Madrid thanks to on its own merits. . There are also those who go in the opposite direction who remember that the minister was already the headliner of the Junta de Castilla y León in 2011 against the popular Juan Vicente Herrera and that the setback was historic. In their defense, they add that he was then the victim of what is called “the Zapatero effect” after the management of the economic crisis of 2008. In any case, this may seem like a very distant story of which very few today remember a very distant history. position for which it was necessary to improvise a story about López’s emotional attachment to Castilla y León given his family relationship with Riaza.
Today, moreover, and after the crisis that pitted Ferraz against the current secretary general of the Castilian-Leonese federation, Luis Tudanca, based on the calendar of the primaries, the name of the mayor of Soria, Carlos Martínez, is best positioned to occupy the same poster that López wore almost three decades ago. There is no better adversary to take away the Board of Directors from Mañueco, say his most fervent supporters, than a socialist mayor who has accumulated four absolute majorities and who has the approval of a large part of the federation .
If Óscar López is a veteran, seasoned in a thousand clashes with the PP, strategist of several electoral campaigns, and one of the protagonists of the recent history of the PSOE, Carlos Martínez is an indisputable reference of municipalism in the PSOE which displays a record of services at polling stations.
Concerning the rest of the territories, there will be time after the federal congress to outline the projects and changes that could occur in the current territorial leaderships because there will be more. To be continued…
