T he complication of the “Ábalos case”, after the latest report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, has fallen like a missile on a PSOE, which feels its internal seams moving, although in Moncloa they continue to trust in that nothing and no one can alter the staging of the closing of ranks with the national leader that they are preparing for the Federal Congress at the end of November. The paradoxical, and more serious, thing is that the fight for territorial control of the PSOE is not directly related to a renewal process aimed at improving the electoral expectations of the party in the next polls. At least that is how they denounce it from that group of leaders whom Ferraz wants to liquidate in the next regional congresses. These names, indicated as candidates for the scaffold, say that the party lives “in a state of pseudo civil war that serves organic interests”, or in other words, “the obsession of Pedro Sánchez’s second levels to take control of the party, of all the federations, for when the stage of managing post-sanchism arrives.
The developments in the “Ábalos case”, which limit Moncloa’s margin to use the former minister as a cordon sanitaire, give breath to those who have begun to stir up the revolt. And, to the extent that they can, they will also use this new waterway in Moncloa represented by corruption and everything that moves around the former Minister of Public Works to defend their positions from their respective “forts.”
The group of territorial leaders, who speak and agree on strategies with the maximum possible discretion to avoid reprisals from Ferraz, point against three names close to the President of the Government, as representatives, in any case, of those second levels of the presidential team that they see maneuvering in order to position themselves for when Sánchez is no longer in the Presidency of the Government. They point to Santos Cerdán, Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, and also other party men who have grown up alongside Sánchez, such as Antonio Hernando, today Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Infrastructure, and the brand new minister Óscar López, of whom they say who are already working to have full control of the territorial federations and, in this way, also guarantee control of the president’s replacement process.
In the core of “Sanchism” they look towards a future without Sánchez, regardless of how much the mantra that the legislature will be exhausted is repeated and even if they deny it by swearing on the Bible. And in the same way that in the Federal Congress there are those who see signs that the party is being prepared for an electoral advance, the regional congresses at the beginning of next year are read as a covert assault operation by Ferraz on all the federations to use them then as a lever from which to direct what is to come, in terms of team and strategy, after the period of the current secretary general. He is also interested in having his own people direct this process to guarantee the most orderly respect for his controversial legacy.
Negative
All of these movements may sound, at first glance, like science fiction, given the proven resistance of the President of the Government to all the difficulties that have been placed before him. But as soon as you look a little at the federations already pilloried by Ferraz, the analysis of the situation and the way of seeing what is being done in Madrid is astonishingly coincident. Also the complaints against Cerdán, not only because he is blamed for distributing garbage against party colleagues to bring them down, but also because of his manners and his refusal to talk about politics with them and the decisions taken in Moncloa in the negotiation with the independentists, such as those that contradict the traditional position of the PSOE on capital and sensitive issues (see amnesty or regional financing). The destabilization of leaderships such as that of Luis Tudanca (Castilla y León), Miguel Ángel Gallardo (Extremadura) or Juan Lobato (Madrid) occurs without anticipating more solid alternative leaderships and even, in some cases, as is the case in Madrid, without attend to the evolution of the party in a very complicated context (due to a national policy of the PSOE that is a burden for the Madrid organization and without giving time for the project to take shape).
Cerdán does not pick up the phone, and if he does it is to refuse to debate the issues that mark the political agenda and that make it difficult for territorial leaders to manage the expectations of the PSOE in their electoral constituencies, but he is not the only one. The Minister of Finance, Maria Jesús Montero, has some from party colleagues on her list of pending messages, in which they simply asked for keys to establish a position on the financing agreement with ERC. There they still have no answer.
President Sánchez hinted at the reception at the Royal Palace, after the military parade on the occasion of the National Holiday, that he is preparing very relevant changes in the party’s leadership. There the key positions are that of Cerdán and that of the deputy secretary, the Minister of Finance. Until now, in the PSOE the continuity of Cerdán had always been taken for granted, as guard of the party’s secrets and also of the negotiation with the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont outside of Spain. But Sánchez has already shown that nothing can be taken for granted. By the way, in the territorial revolt, in Andalusia the official status of the alternative current to Juan Espadas, which this newspaper reported just a week ago, has been confirmed. Espadas was until now Ferraz’s official candidate, not because he was a good candidate, but because he is the most manageable for national interests. In Valencia there is a revolt against Minister Diana Morant. And the waters are not calm in Murcia or the Balearic Islands either.