Sánchez is preparing a profound change in the direction of the PSOE to rearm it for the electoral cycle

  • The president prepares for a fretwork remodeling of its leadership, as indicated by the fact that it has convened, and for this Saturday, the federal committee

  • There are no certainties, but everything indicates that it will gain more weight and influence the core of Moncloa. In the pools, Antonio Hernando, Patxi López and Pilar Alegría

At least, there is already a certain time horizon. Saturday. The July 23th, Pedro Sánchez will clear all doubts about the adjustments he has designed for his leadership in the PSOE. And they will be profound, due to the first powerful signal that he sent this Tuesday: the convocation for that day of the party’s federal committee, the highest governing body. But, from that point on, the certainties slip away because he has not yet proceeded to the appointments, to even reveal what new structure he has in mind. Although it does seem more than consolidated the hard core of Moncloa will gain more groundmore influence, more power, regardless of whether that victory translates into a landing of his high positions in Ferraz. The name that appears the most in the pools is Antonio Hernando, deputy director of the Cabinet. But in the internal bets other rising leaders also emerge and very recognizable in training: exlendakari Patxi López in a spokesperson or Minister Pilar Alegría in a more relevant position in the executive.

Once Adriana Lastra resigned as deputy general secretary on Monday, the leader could have waited until after the summer to rethink his PSOE executive and get it ready for the electoral cycle. He could have done a little tweaking, period. But he decided to quell the party’s angst by setting a date, Saturday, and summoning his federal committee. In other words, he accelerated and launched the message, as confirmed by sources close to him in Moncloa and in Ferraz, that he has a fretwork remodeling, because by summoning the highest echelon of power he has a free hand to introduce all the organic changes he wants. The statutes prescribe, in its article 34.4that the coverage of vacancies or the reorganization of management must be approved by the executive and ratified by committee. For this Saturday, the dome is summoned first and the highest body below.

In recent hours, the possibility of an electoral committee that would coordinate campaigns and communication, a kind of ‘parallel executive’, has circulated, but the leader could want to go further

In the last hours the possibility had been considered that Sánchez decided set up an electoral committee to grease the relationship with Ferraz, who would take the reins of the regional and municipal campaigns and then of the general ones. A lucky ‘parallel executive‘. But to approve his formation, it was enough to gather the federal executive. That the president cites the committee is indicative that he will move the pieces of his own dome, which was voted in the 40th Federal Congress, last October, by 94.94% of the delegates. That is to say, that it will probably cover the vacancy of Lastra, but it can also remove the questioned spokesperson for the PSOE – in the hands of Felipe Sicilia, very close to the former number two – or even appoint a new Secretary of Organization, replacing the Navarrese Santos Cerdan. Precisely, the difficult cohabitation of this and Lastra explains both the urgency of the party and the president’s decision to precipitate the relays.

“Ferraz has faltered”

“What is clear is that Ferraz has faltered in these months. No this. And if Pedro has to enter Ferraz it is because Ferraz not working, and he needs the PSOE (and United We Can) at full capacity. It needs to grease the machinery of the party for the next year and a half, and it requires a gear that works 24/7″, analyzes a high-ranking official from Moncloa. How does it materialize? “There may be a electoral committee that from above design ideas, plan big lines, but the soldiers must be provided by the party, because if the PSOE loses tension, which is what has happened in Andalusia, there is nothing to do”. “We have had the electoral committees to ballots and censuses… Are you going to replace a committee to the federal executive? That doesn’t make sense, because you also put the hard core of the leadership in the committees,” illustrates a weighty regional baron. Ferraz also holds the same thesis: that once Lastra has paved the way, the leader is going to take advantage of it to rearrange your house, change the chassismodify the heart of power.

It is not clear if Hernando will land in Ferraz, because he is a key figure in Moncloa. His appointment would be a bomb, due to the misgivings he arouses in sanchismo, by betraying the ‘no is no’

Sánchez could place his trusted positions in Moncloa in the electoral committee, to make visible who the faces of socialist power are. The first power ring It is made up of his Cabinet Director, Óscar López, and his two, Antonio Hernando, plus the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños. With the first two, the president recovered the relationship in 2021 after years of estrangement: after seeing each other laid down by the barons in 2016both, who had been his collaborators, turned their backs. Lopez directed the primary campaign of Patxi López, and Hernando continued as spokesman in Congress. He served the manager to go from ‘no is no’ to Mariano Rajoy, which Sánchez raised to abstention, a turn that was highly reviled internally. But Sánchez rescued those who were his two close friends in the party, because all three worked under Pepe Blanco when he was Secretary of Organization for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. “Everyone learned then how the apparatus is directed and how elections are won,” a high-ranking Moncloa commander values ​​today.

Will Hernando de facto land in Ferraz, with stripes? not known yet. Nor, if so, in what position would he end up. There are those who do not see him at the controls of the apparatus or in a relevant position in the socialist leadership, because his work “is necessary in Moncloa“, since he is the one who organizes the political action of the Government. His appointment would be a bomb, precisely because of the misgivings he arouses in the sanchism purebred. Others do believe that it could be promoted. Hernando is a figure essential In this new stage of Sánchez, there is no doubt about that, beyond whether he goes into the game.

Adjustments also in the Government?

Either way, the Moncloa will gain presence in the daily dynamics of the party. To begin with, because Sánchez will probably correct the existing dysfunction, since Lastra’s relationship with Hernando could not be fluid: she, those who know her well say, could not digest that those who had betrayed the boss in 2016 were again next to the. “But this game is governed from Moncloa. It has always been like this —says a regional president—, it is a government party that is at the service of the country. Pedro has indeed forgiven Antonio and Óscar, but the troops do not forget, they have the memory of the nights in the trench”.

In the party it is believed that it was not trivial that Sánchez vindicated Patxi López, a leader with a long career and much loved, in the midst of the nation’s debate

Another name on the rise is that of Patxi López, secretary of Democratic Memory and Laicity of the federal leadership. He is now seen as a possible new spokesman in Congress, replacing Héctor Gómez, from the Canary Islands, although there are those who also see him as spokesman for the executive, instead of Felipe Sicilia from Jaen. In the leadership they warn that it was very significant that, last week, on the second day of the debate on the state of the nation, Sánchez vindicated him for his contribution to the end of terrorism and hugged him affectionately. The exlendakari has a long political career and is appreciated in the party. The criticism of Sánchez, in fact, was that he was very wasted since he integrated it into his management in 2017. He was not part of his circle of trust nor did he take it to the Government. Removing parliamentary spokespersons is a procedure approved by the leadership, without going through the committee.

Also circulating in the PSOE is the idea of ​​a possible promotion of the Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, value on the rise. Like new maybe deputy general secretary? It is an option that haunts the gossip of the party, because the president also needs a woman by his side. Alegría was already Secretary of Organization of the Aragonese PSOE, spokesperson for Susana Díaz’s campaign in primaries, regional councillor. And now she is a member of the federal leadership. She knows her training well and it is appreciated that she knows how to respond to the PP. Because what Moncloa needs, government sources indicate, is to reinforce the profile of the PSOE executive to “cover the flanks“and attack the conservatives with no strings attached in a long election year that is going to be”very hard“and in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo starts in a better position, already placed as the first force even in the CIS, as his July barometer known this Tuesday showed. The promotion of Alegría, in addition, would open the question of whether a immediate restructuring of the Executive or else it is left for when adjustments have to be made to get ministers out for electoral candidacies.

Cerdán, in the spotlight

A figure in the spotlight is that of Santos Cerdán. Those close to Lastra take it for granted that it will fall with the internal remodeling. “The one who started this whole mess, messing with her, was him.And now he is going to reward him?”, they wonder. In the circle of the former deputy secretary they point out that she left “anticipating” to an emptying of his functions and “fed up with the pressures, from all over the world, of bickering, from the fifth floor” of the PSOE’s federal headquarters. That is, of Organization. That is why they understand that Cerdán, “by dignity“, he should resign. But other leaders consulted do not think so, although they recognize his very low visibility, they do recognize his organic relationship with the territories, which has always flowed No problem.

“This is an opera of extras around a tenor and his political career, nobody paints anything,” comments a veteran critic

Related news

Sánchez has already begun to turn the ship with the remodeling of the Government a year ago. He got rid of part of his faithful, with the traumatic fall of Carmen Calvo and José Luis Ábalos —and the celebrated fall of the director of the Cabinet, Iván Redondo—, and began to reconcile the party, erasing the first sanchismo. He now he could undertake the second part of that operation, laminating completely to the original circle that encouraged him to fight in the primaries against Susana Díaz in 2017. Of that ring, only Cerdán remains. Something that outrages those who then accompanied him. “This is one opera of extras around a tenor and his political career, we do not paint anything anyone. Have we gone from a turn to the left announced in the nation’s debate to now being led by the ‘White boys’, those who betrayed the ‘no is no’? What then are its principles and foundations?” emphasizes a veteran.

The president intends to launch a resounding message inside (and outside), making a deep face wash from the direction he himself chose less than a year ago. “But it’s the same: he will send, and only he“conclude those who are suspicious of his movements. The PSOE continues to wait.



ttn-24