The president has changed teams according to his needs but without ever delegating all his political decisions
Pedro Sánchez has just completed a five years in the Moncloa. The general elections on July 23 will dictate whether he remains in charge of the Government for longer. These years are already enough to certify a own style of exercising power, which bears no similarities to its predecessors. All presidents have faced enormous difficulties, which they have resolved with more or less success. But only he, in the most difficult moments, has shown a survival instinct so developed.
That drive marked his career before presiding over the Executive and has accompanied him all these years. Those who spoke with him on the election night of 28M assure that very shortly after midnight he had already resolved that I would advance the elections. Sánchez always takes a step even though it seems that there is no way and the danger of moving one foot is falling into the void this 23J. But he is not a brash leader. On the contrary, he is a thoughtful leader.
It is neither impenetrable nor isolated. He is surrounded by a hard core to which he listens and which has varied according to his needs. His chief of staff, Oscar Lopezthe second in Presidency, Anthony Hernando (although she is now the headliner for Almería and no longer holds this position), the deputy secretary of the PSOE and Minister of Finance, Maria Jesus Monterothe Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanosthe PSOE spokesperson and Minister of Education, Pilar Alegriathe Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdanand the Secretary of State for Communication, Francesc Valles.
With this group he discusses his next moves. President is advisedHe listens to what he is told and sometimes seeks opinions outside of that circle. But she ruminates and make their decisions alone, without sharing them practically until he has taken them. He resounding failure of perception of Ferraz and Moncloawho did not sense the wave of rejection of the coalition executive that 28M brought to fruition, has raised the question of whether his team really does not know how to read what Spanish society thinks or is that they do not dare to tell them.
Do they tell the truth to the president?
It begins to break through thesis that Sánchez is “afraid” because the president accumulates a trail of political corpses, precisely of people who for up to two years were completely trusted. The defenestration of José Luis Ábalos, Carmen Calvo and Iván Redondothe first with enough capacity to offer their own political criteria, and later of Adriana Lastrawould weigh on the sincerity of its current orbit, according to what the organization itself points out.
On the other hand, those who lived through that crisis maintain that there were well-founded reasons for the relief, that it was not a whim: “Bald was exhaustedafter a year with his health impaired by the covid and his own role in the Executive blurred by the presence of Vice President Iglesias”. The march of Ábalos, add, “was always an enigmawhich is now resolved by becoming a candidate again, without further explanation.” In the case of Redondo, after trusting him to promote the motion of no confidence and the electoral victories of 2019, his departure “little by little opted” after the the failed motion of no confidence in Murcia, whose authorship “he always denied”, and the “national ridicule for the ephemeral greeting between Sánchez and Joe Biden, which the director of the cabinet did cook politically and mediatically”.
Although it doesn’t matter who is by his side because Sánchez always has the reins. If for a time Iván Redondo was someone powerful in Spain, it is because he allowed it. Every time he has seen himself in trouble, he gives a change of direction, without even those closest to him being able to intuit it. This hegemony contrasts with the autonomy granted to its ministers. Trust them and leave them hands free. The president, say those who have worked with him, “concentrates on the global, on the strategic and on the tactical, in the management of the Ministries he gets little involved.” On the other hand, politically he is aware of absolutely everything. To the point of seeing the video of one of his rallies on social networks, realizing that a new shot was used in the production and calling the PSOE communication director to tell him that he liked it.
The tension with Podemos
However, his desire to control this legislature has run into an important obstacle: maintaining the stability of the coalition Executive with United We Can. He has had to swallow quina to hold the government together. Against even the opinion of his own team, has let the purple ministers do and on several occasions, such as the Trans law or the ‘only yes is yes’ law, the balance has tipped in their favor. These concessions have also rebelled to part of the party but it was not until Moncloa perceived the electoral damage from the reduction in sentences for sexual offenders that the president gave the order to present a legislative reform with or without Podemos.
The Executive ends up broken, politically and personally, with a lot of incomprehension from the socialist block to the constant ‘noise’ of Podemos and a certain disappointment with Yolanda Díaz because she did not align more with them. The break has gone so far that the government, in September 2022, voted divided on the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. Something that was repeated later with the law of only yes is yes’.
But for Sánchez there was a before and after in the coalition with the departure of Pablo Iglesias from the Government. The relationship between them was always rough, although the two-year cohabitation helped them get to know each other better and respect each other. The two had to unlock the most serious conflicts and there have been many. With Díaz, communication has been easier and they have more esteem and trust.
The party, abandoned
The natural disposition of the PSOE has been to try to impose itself and pass over Podemos. The purple ones not only did not allow themselves, but they have constantly made a banner that the social measures were approved thanks to them. The clash between the two formations has marked the legislature. In Congress, the Socialists have shown the same spirit, despite their minority. They have negotiated but amid constant complaints from their allies, who have often reproached them for taking the talks to the limit and taking their support for granted because the opposite was to ally with PP and Vox.
In the absence of verifying what happens on 23J, The president’s suit has granted Sánchez all authority in the party. After his second victory as secretary general, his arrival at Moncloa ended up bringing the most critical barons closer together, although the legislature has not been exempt from reproach from leaders such as Javier Lambán or Emiliano García Page, especially for the pacts with ERC and Bildu. Although the president knows the PSOE well has not paid attention to the government’s relationship with the territories socialists. The ties were very deficient with Iván Redondo at the head of his cabinet and, although they improved with Óscar López, the distance from Moncloa has been a constant complaint from the barons.
Image of superb leader
In the first years, Sánchez distanced himself more from the PSOE, he opted for more signings of independents and the Government operated with its back to Ferraz who, in addition, did not accompany the Executive as a reinforcement of its political action. This was polished, especially with the departure of Redondo, who always perceived that “the leader was the winning horse, with a push greater than the historical acronyms of the party,” according to sources close to them. With that idea that “the locomotive was Sánchez and not his political organization” he worked in Moncloa until his departure. Next to him, the journalist, Miguel Ángel Oliver, the first secretary of Communication, and without a PSOE card.
In the successive events that it has had to live through, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the negotiation of European funds, the Iberian exception, it has revealed itself as a good crisis manager, with initiative. But, the absence of gratuitous suffering, probably a crucial element of leadership, has become something negative until drawing him as someone arrogant and dehumanized. A projection that the closest ones refute.
Throughout these years he did not pay attention to the fact that this image was permeating. And he has never exploited a part of his personality-he is not spiteful, he is capable of reconciling with people from whom he had distanced himself, such as López, Hernando and former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero himself-who could have introduced him as a more sentimental politician.
In his team they limited the rejection of his figure to something strictly Madrid. The result of 28M showed that no, that it was much more transversal. In this campaign he has chosen to fight it by going to some programs where he has been criticized the most. In the last week of the campaign he continues at it. Now the 23J will rule if it arrives too late.