Throughout the history of socialism, it has always been said that when the Madrid federation sneezed, the entire PSOE cooled down. This may be because it was in a central tavern in the capital that the party was founded in 1879, although its inaugural congress took place in Barcelona. Or it will be, because then as now, Madrid was the nerve center of politics. Or because the different federal leaderships have always believed that the conquest of institutional power in Madrid was a national cause. Namely.
Legend has it that Pablo Iglesias, founder of the party, lamented on his deathbed that he had failed to repair the organization in Madrid and also that at the end of the 70s of the last century, the Catalan socialist Josep Maria Triginer , Josep Tarradellas’ advisor used a crisis in the defunct Socialist Federation of Madrid as an excuse not to attend a meeting in front of the president of the Generalitat. “If that’s why, you don’t need to go.” The socialists of Madrid have been in crisis since 1931. honorable moult.
The spasm of the resignation of Juan Lobato as general secretary of Madrid socialism and the reasons that pushed him to do so shook the party of Pedro Sánchez in the days leading up to its 41st Federal Congress, which is held under the slogan ” Spain is moving forward from the left. “. The truth is that the socialists were already in turmoil long before Lobato’s brutal resignation. For Aldama, for Begoña Gómez’s advisor, for the accusation of Sánchez’s brother, for that of the attorney general and for a string of dresses transformed into a real political opposition.
It was impossible for the residents of rue Ferraz to protect themselves from information outside the conclave. In fact, in the early hours of Friday all eyes and ears were on what was happening in Madrid’s Plaza de las Salesas, seat of the Supreme Court, where Lobato was testifying as a witness in the trial against the Attorney General of the state. Álvaro García Ortiz, for the WhatsApp messages that he exchanged with the former chief of staff of Óscar López and formalized at a notary to protect against the leak of the personal data of Ayuso’s friend.
And as the early risers were being accredited, it was learned that Lobato’s statement, for many in attendance, “gave birth to a mouse.” A “buffoonery”, in the words of a socialist minister, for whom the publication of the controversial WhatsApp messages “not only does not provide any proof that Moncloa had the controversial email before the media, but that Pilar Sánchez Acera was in it. “is careful and careful to ensure that personal data is not disseminated.”
“It is for this reason that he ended his political career. The only thing that all this shows is that we had a very unwise leader in Madrid,” adds the same interlocutor. Another minister shows the absolute certainty that the thread that Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the Madrid right intend to establish between Moncloa and the public prosecutor’s office “never existed”, that “there was no revelation of secrets” and that the cross-mail had already been published earlier by the media.
Not everyone knows it so clearly, but no one will express it that way during this weekend where the socialists will only close ranks with Pedro Sánchez and his government in the face of the judicial, political and media offensive of the right. . So much so that it stands to reason that the ideological debate will occupy second, third or fourth place. Also that of the amendments on regional financing after the president of the Generalitat worked hard to convince the different barons that “Catatunya is back to stay”.
“We must save Illa and the pact with the ERC”, recognizes one of the 1,000 delegates who will participate in the conclave, who also affirms that with the contributions of the federations we will try to remedy the absence of reference to nuclear issues. like memory or immigration.
This weekend will take place the first Federal Congress of the PSOE in which Felipe González, the first secretary general that the party already had in democracy, will not participate. The man who served as president of the Spanish government for 14 years declined the invitation which, according to his account, came to him after he had already planned a trip outside Spain. Whether it is true or not, the management wanted, with the presence of Manuel Chaves and Pepe Griñán this Saturday in plenary session, to explain that everything is not tension, nor criticism, nor offense between the different generations. The two former presidents of the Board of Directors return to the PSOE after years of ostracism due to the ERE decision. And they do it with joy that their party reserves for them on this occasion the position which they should never have lost and thus reconciles itself with its past.
Those who will not be missing in the interventions of those who will speak between today and tomorrow, according to what Vice President María Jesús Montero announced on Friday, will be reproaches against Feijóo and his form of opposition. Never in Spain, as until now, have so many red lines been crossed in the legitimate political fight, and what the socialists see in the president of the PP “is a putschist speech” against their general secretary.
This is how he spoke during a meeting with the media, accompanied by the organizational secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, and the general secretary of the Andalusian PSOE and socialist spokesperson in the Senate, Juan Espadas , within the framework of a prior visit to the congress venue. A putschist? He was referring to certain statements by Feijóo in which he encouraged the PSOE to fire Sánchez and took the opportunity to recall that the general secretary is elected by all its members because “the PSOE is a democratic party. And we’re also taking her to a gala.
Changes in the different federations
What they want at all costs, in everything concerning the Lobato affair and the accusation of the Attorney General, is that no one deviates from the origin of this affair, and that this is the procedural situation of Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s boyfriend, who “lies about the situation of his partner” and about the clarifications he has not yet given regarding the penthouse in which he lives, which would have been financed with the resources of tax fraud already admitted by himself.
All this was not supposed to figure in the scenario of a Congress convened above all to rethink the political project of the PSOE – which remains unresolved – and to re-elect Sánchez for the fourth time as secretary general so that he there is no doubt that he will continue to be in charge. And yet, it is there, in all the delegates’ conversations. First, it was inevitable that the organization would scale back the pageantry and partying, like the American Democratic conventions, in the wake of the DANA tragedy sweeping through Valencia. And with the departure of Lobato from the post of secretary general of the PSOE in Madrid, the debate also precipitates on the replacement of several territorial directorates that Ferraz intended to suspend until the beginning of the year. Madrid will not be the only federation where there will be changes, as elDiario.es predicted months ago.
Where major changes are not expected is within the Federal Executive, beyond some incorporations of members from the territories. Sánchez will retain his current hard core, made up of María Jesús Montero as Deputy Secretary General and Santos Cerdán as Organization, even though they were accused in court by the allegedly corrupt Aldama.
