Sánchez rebalances power in Ferraz and reinforces the role of Lastra

Pedro Sánchez’s nucleus of power, in the Government and in the party, is narrow. Very few leaders and ministers of his highest confidence are fully aware of his strategy, his steps, his decisions. In Ferraz, the pillars, before and after the remodeling of the Cabinet last July, are Adriana Lastra and Santos Cerdán. After the fall of José Luis Ábalos, both assumed the helm of the party, and kept it after the 40th Federal Congress, last October, in Valencia. But it has been now when the president has wanted to make the roles of both very clear. And he has sent a clear message: after stripping her of the spokesperson in the lower house, has reinforced its deputy secretary general, has provided more content to his portfolio to offset it against the Secretary of Organization. In other words, it has rebalanced power in the PSOE headquarters.

This past Monday, the management approved, three months after the congress, the regulations of the federal executive commission. That is to say, the document that defines the competences of each head of the leadership. And that’s where news happened, in the first echelon of command. Sánchez puts Lastra in charge of directing the policy of communication of the party and the establishment of the “criteria of operation” of the socialist parliamentary groups in Congress, Senate and European Parliament. Two important attributions, which give greater content to a position in principle devoid of its own powers, compared to the power of Organization, the area on which rested and rests the dialogue with the territories and the reins of the organic life of the PSOE.

ballast already became number two in the 39th Congress, the one of 2017, the one that certified Sánchez’s reconquest of the throne of Ferraz after some bloody primaries against Susana Díaz. The powers of the deputy general secretary, as is tradition in the party, were reduced [aquí en PDF]: all the tasks delegated by the leader, plus the coordination of internal work and the planning of the electoral strategy, together with the Secretary of Organization. It was also his task to approve, together with Ábalos, the “general criteria for parliamentary action“. At that time, the PSOE was in opposition, but after a year the general secretary took over the Executive after the motion of censure against Mariano Rajoy. The deputy secretary then became the parliamentary spokesperson in Congress. That It was his main mission.

In July 2021, Sánchez remodeled his Executive. A movement in which he made Ábalos fall. Lastra did not become the “plenipotentiary” leader, as Ferraz first warned. The leader promoted the former minister’s right-hand man, Santos Cerdán, to Organization, and commissioned him and number two to prepare for the 40th Congress. President raised to the Asturian leader, from her point of view of not accumulating charges, that she had to choose between the spokesperson in Congress or the party. She stayed with the party. Sánchez then chose to relieve her in the lower house by Héctor Gómez from the Canary Islands. Transfer that was completed in September. At that time, it was ensured that Lastra had not lost power, although she had lost visibility by giving up the colorful showcase of the Lower House.

“Clear skills”

The 40th Congress kept Lastra y Cerdán as Deputy Secretary General and Secretary of Organization. But now the head of the Executive has preferred to rebalance the internal forces in Ferraz, in the last two years of the legislature, in which the federal headquarters will go gaining prominence by the succession of electoral calls. But also as a medicine in the face of a possible increase in internal tensions.

As Ferraz sources indicated to this newspaper, and as How did the SER advance?, the new regulation of the executive increases the power of the two. Gives you command of policy communication (which had always fallen to Organisation) and the approval of the “general criteria for parliamentary action” in the Cortes Generales and in Brussels. That is, she will establish the position that the party will adopt in Congress, the Senate and the European Parliament, above their respective spokespersons (Héctor Gómez, Eva Granados and Iratxe García).

It has been an honor to be president of the @fpabloiglesias During the last years. An institution that transmits socialist resilience and passion, 142 years of impeccable history that deserves to be cared for and disseminated.

An honor to have @luisacarcedo in this new assignment. https://t.co/DZMPdVHqup

– Santos Cerdán León (@santicl) January 17, 2022

It also becomes yours, exclusively, the power to mark “the guidelines that guide the organizational functioning of parliamentary activity”, power before it was in the hands of the head of the apparatus, without sharing it with the two. Regarding communication, at the headquarters they remember that in practice the Asturian already led the strategy. She is very close, moreover, to the director of communication of the party, Maritcha Ruiz, who has also accompanied Sánchez since his beginnings in politics.

In addition, Lastra will continue to share the planning of the electoral strategy with the person in charge of the apparatus, a duo that is joined by the Secretary of Electoral Action, Javier Izquierdo. In other words, the Organization is deprived of some functions in order to provide the deputy secretariat with more content. From the headquarters, iron is taken away from this new redistribution: “It is a way of having the structured party, that each one has their clear competencies. But now we have the elections in Castilla y León and then in Andalusia, and then all the others.” The municipal and regional ones in May 2023 and the last ones, therefore, the general ones, if there is no advance payment.

power cores

There is another sign that indicates Lastra’s reinforcement: the executive approved the replacement at the Pablo Iglesias Foundation on Monday. Until now, it was chaired by Santos Cerdán. His successor will be the Asturian deputy and former Minister of Health Luisa Carcedo, very close to the Deputy Secretary General and who had stayed off the hook after leaving the Executive, in January 2020, and the party leadership, after the Valencia conclave.

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In the direction they insist on “normalize” Monday’s process and focusing the shot on elections. They also remember that the baton is led by the Government, which is the one who ultimately imposes the rhythms and strategies and conditions all the work of the PSOE. But there are those who have perceived certain tensions, still very buried, between Lastra and Cerdán. For now they have not exploded, but the delimitation of functions seeks to smooth out rough edges and prevent hypothetical and future conflicts. However, in the preparation of the current direction the influence of each could be glimpsed one. Thus, for example, the new head of Equality, Andrea Fernández, and the new spokesperson, Felipe Sicilia, are very close to Lastra. On the other hand, she saw the party manager, Mariano Moreno, whom she trusted, fall. On the other side, Cerdán preserves key attributions, such as the relationship with the territories, the custody of censuses, the processing of disciplinary files, the proposal of budgets or the catalog of personnel.

Time will tell if this is a mere reorganization or substantial changes for the future. The match it’s already in campaign mode, and in the next two years the consolidation of its power or the entry into a cycle of attrition is at stake.