José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero received this Friday, during the inauguration of the PSOE political convention, more applause than any other party leader. Pedro Sanchez will not travel to A Coruña, where the socialist summit is being held, until Saturday, and will not intervene until Sunday, closing day, so there was no competition between the president and the former president. But the ovation that the audience, made up of more than 1,000 people, gave to Zapatero was much higher than that received by high officials such as Maria Jesus Montero and Santos Cerdán. The former general secretary is now the main reference of the PSOE, only behind Sánchez, a circumstance that he himself took advantage of this time to ask the party to embrace without complexes, in the face of the attacks and mobilizations of the PP and Vox, the amnesty of the ‘ process’.
“Is Spain breaking up? She was about to break in 2017. Now we are on the path of reconciliation. I am a strong defender of the amnesty. “I believe in generosity, in coexistence and in starting over,” said Zapatero to new applause.
“This is the best moment in the history of Spain,” insists the former president, who has become the party’s main reference, only behind Sánchez
The current weight of the former head of the Executive in the PSOE would have been very difficult to imagine just a few years ago. The crisis economic, the cuts that he approved and the subsequent defeats The 2011 elections caused the party leaders to prefer not to have him around for a long time. Now, however, the situation is the reverse. That is why this Friday he was in charge of the opening day of the political convention, with which the socialists seek to relaunch their political project, prepare for the next appointments with the polls (in Galicia, Euskadi, Europe and Catalonia) and support his candidate for the Xunta, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, whose chances of becoming regional president on February 18 do not seem very high.
The protagonism
“You already know that I have returned to get the taste to the electoral campaigns,” Zapatero began by saying, who during the weeks prior to the general elections on July 23, in which the PSOE achieved against the odds to remain in power, had almost as much prominence as Sánchez himself. His presence at rallies and interviews was continuous, culminating a rehabilitation process that he had begun shortly before, almost in parallel with Felipe González, to whom the opposite has happened.
Above all, starting in 2019, when Zapatero mediated for there to be a coalition between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos. Later, in the second part of the last legislature, he did the same so that the purples agreed to run in the general elections under the umbrella of Sumar. Also so that the crucial relationship between the socialists and ERC would flow. And finally, after the recent elections, when negotiations with the Republicans and with Junts in Catalonia remained in absolute secret, Zapatero was the first to praise the amnesty, agreed with the Catalan independence parties in exchange for their support for Sánchez’s investiture.
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This Friday, at a time of enormous tension politics, with recent protests and riots in front of the PSOE headquarters, the former president offered the opposite thesis. Spain has never been “better” Now, he insisted, calling on his party to transmit this message loud and clear.
“This is the best time of the history of Spain. If we do not defend this with full conviction, our party will have a moment of weakness. There is no political violence. There is no corruption. More Spaniards work than ever. Many companies, so much so that they complain, are going to make profits this year. Women have more responsibilities. There has never been like now so many freedoms “individuals,” he said. The audience stood up again.