Lastra’s departure along with Calvo’s a year ago means that practically only men make up the first ring of power that surrounds the Prime Minister | With the resignation of the deputy secretary general, Santos Cerdán is the only one who survives from the original group that supported Sánchez to his second life in the PSOE and helped him get to Moncloa
You look back and none of your co-workers are with you now. You started with them, grew and matured professionally thanks to their contributions. But now there are none left. The vital experience of any anonymous person, employed for years and years in the same company, can also be applied to the President of the Government. Only in the case of Pedro Sanchez he has decided the fate of his closest collaborators. With the resignation of Adriana Lastra as the deputy secretary general of the PSOE, only the Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán, remains of that initial group.
He and Lastra were his first hard coreafter the socialist apparatus removed him from the general secretariat on October 1, 2016. Beside José Luis Ábalos not only did not abandon him, they supported him, encouraged him and had the ability to see that he could rise up and wage a new battle with the unique encouragement of militancy. The conversations they had those autumn days are already part of the history of PSOE. That original team regained control of the game. Sánchez’s ability to fall and get up should not be detracted from. But for some, his desire for revenge changed the PSOE and turned it into something different. More meek and Cesarist, less deliberative.
During the primaries, Carmen Calvo joined this clan and, once she managed to return to the position of general secretary, the circle increased with Iván Redondo. They have all played a capital role in these years, since before Sánchez conquered the Government with the motion of censure June 2018. And all but Santos Cerdán, at least for now, have been lost along the way. They fell out of the leader’s orbit without realizing it. Abruptly and unexpectedly. Some of them, like Redondo, still don’t seem to be over it.
“If you don’t fit his purposes, you’re not worth it”
According to someone who knows the President of the Government well, “if you don’t adjust to his goals, you’re not worth it.” “Pedro goes his own way and does what he considers appropriate at all times”. With Lastra it has not yet been possible to confirm whether the only reason for his resignation was the need to rest due to a risky pregnancy or whether he has thrown in the towel due to his disagreements with Santos Cerdán. In the PSOE there are many voices who believe that the latter has been crucial, that Ferraz did not work like a well-oiled machine, that they were wrong in the messages of the Andalusian campaign, that the party did not act as a repeater of the Executive’s action or as a retaining wall for criticism from the opposition. And it is further noted that Sánchez “was fed up with tension and division”.
But the departure of who was number two of the PSOE supposes the dismantling of the original circle and its replacement by a new one, in which there is no woman. Something that the former Vice President of the Government, Carmen Calvo, the first to leave that orbit a year ago, did not fail to review this Monday on social networks. “In the Democracy of Equality between Women and Men, It is not good that women leave the front line of politics. Adriana, good luck.
In the Democracy of Equality between Women and Men, it is not good for women to come out of the first line of politics. Adrian, good luck.
– Carmen Calvo (@carmencalvo_) July 18, 2022
A hard core of men
The nucleus of the president has long been made up of more men than women: the most relevant are the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, his chief of staff, Oscar Lopezits deputy director, Anthony Hernando, Santos Cerdán in the party (also Lastra until his resignation). It is not known who will replace the deputy general secretary of the PSOE, even if Sánchez will do so or will look for other alternatives, but both she and Calvo were two heavyweights in the Government and in the party that are no longer there.
It is true that the Executive has three vice-presidents –Nadia Calvino Y Theresa Rivera of the socialist bloc and Yolanda Diaz from United We Can– and a spokeswoman, Elizabeth Rodriguez, that together with the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, are very representative and even influential. But none of these leaders are part of the first ring of power nor have they ever had the closeness and trust with the president that Calvo and Lastra maintained. The only one that has come closer is Montero.
That proximity did not help the former vice president or others who seemed untouchable like Redondo and Ábalos. The companions of that trip that led Sánchez to Moncloa have disappeared. The three of them vanished in the remodeling of July a year ago, when the chief executive left everyone in the PSOE dumbfounded by his coldness when dispensing with his closest collaborators. Not only Redondo for his air of being a minister, but also two people of the political stature of Ábalos and Calvo, each for different reasons.
The space that both left in the Executive has not yet been occupied. On the contrary, the general feeling is that this crisis was unsuccessful and that the government lacks people with more experience, capable of giving an opinion on any matter. Some like the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, or the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, with great experience, seem wasted. Now it remains to be seen what Sánchez wants to do with the government and with the party.