The candidacy led by the mayor of Castro Urdiales, Susana Herrán, would have provisionally won in the internal vote organized this Sunday among the activists and, if the results are confirmed, it would lead the Cantabrian delegation to the Federal Congress of the PSOE to be organized in Seville at the end November to re-elect Pedro Sánchez. The critical list of the current leadership of the party in the autonomous community claims a narrow victory of 10 delegates against 9 against the candidacy of the current secretary general, Pablo Zuloaga, who does not accept these data as good due to the dispute of a table which would give a turn in the results, giving him the victory with only two votes difference.
Thus, the nearly 3,000 PSOE activists in Cantabria were called to the polls this Sunday in an organic process that seemed inconsequential, since it was simply a question of choosing the 19 delegates who will attend the Federal Congress of Seville during which Pedro Sánchez will vote en masse. Bath as the only candidate, but this in the autonomous community was presented as a first round of an internal conflict brewed by the control of the party, promoted by a critical sector grouped around the national deputy Pedro Casares, who did not even participate in the first person
Depending on the final results of this vote, in which approximately 75% of activists participated, different conclusions will be drawn in the face of a new frontal clash next spring, which will take place during the primaries in the country where the General Secretariat of the PSOE of Cantabria will be put at stake, which is why socialist activism has lived in recent weeks between tension and amazement due to the level of aggressiveness that has been unleashed in a call more symbolic than real, but which There will be effects to short term, even more so after the challenge and the dance of numbers in the votes.
The activists had to choose between two lists: the one led by Pablo Zuloaga himself with his usual team and the one led by the mayor of Castro Urdiales, Susana Herrán, as a person brought by Pedro Casares, who ensured his presence in Seville as a member of the outgoing Federal Executive. Without the possibility of negotiation or integration, some and others interpreted this meeting at the polls as a first attempt at a battle to measure their strength and count support, which divided the party practically into two equal halves.
All this provoked an intense campaign even to gather support, with individual calls to activists, interviews, statements to the media and an externalization of the internal conflict towards public opinion which was criticized even by Ferraz, who had to intervene with a new message. statement in which he denied “neither guardianship nor interference” in favor of one of the candidates presented to the organic process.
If the provisional distribution of votes is confirmed, the 19 Cantabrian delegates who will travel to Seville to support Pedro Sánchez would be led by Susana Herrán with nine other people from her list: Julio Pinna, Ainoa Quiñones, Sergio Abascal, Esther Bolado, Gonzalo. Fernández, Andrea Ventisca, Salomón Martín, Lydia Terán and Nicolás Toral. The rest of the delegation would be completed by Pablo Zuloaga himself and eight members of his team: Eugenia Gómez de Diego, José Luis Urraca, Ana Belén Álvarez, Javier Incera, Charo Losa, Sergio Balbontín, María Dolores Nates and José Salmón. If the results changed, the distribution would also change, in this case going from 10 to 9 for Zuloaga.
Challenge of a table
And a few minutes after transmitting a first preview of the results, with which Susana Herrán would be the winner, the party published a brief official statement in which it grants provisional victory to the candidacy of Pablo Zuloaga, who would have obtained 50.05% of the votes. voice. the votes.
According to this press release, these are the data in favor of the list of the current secretary general while waiting for the challenge presented by his team to be resolved concerning the vote in the group of the commune of Cartes, where “one person participated”. non-militant, even part of the voting table.
“In this way, the provisional results show that the candidacy of Pablo Zuloaga received 50.05% support, with 970 votes, while that of Susana Herrán obtained 49.94% support, with 968 votes”, underlines the PSOE in its press release, anticipating an internal conflict which Ferraz will have to resolve in the coming days.
