The president endorses María Jesús Montero as the new deputy general secretary and Patxi López and Pilar Alegría as spokespersons in Congress and the party | The reformed hard core, straddling Ferraz and Moncloa, will be made up of nine people, including five ministers and the leader’s chief of staff, Óscar López
Pedro Sánchez produces ua new version of himself. It reinvents itself by amending itself. He completely corrects the trajectory that he undertook barely nine months ago, in the last federal congress of the PSOE, number 40, to wake up his party, apply a powerful shock therapy to it in order to equip it in the face of the very tough electoral contest, of more than a year, which is coming from September. The general secretary and president puts his power core through deep surgeryunceremoniously, lifting to the very first line of fire to three heavyweights —María Jesús Montero, Patxi López and Pilar Alegría— and picking up a fourth veteran —Miquel Iceta. Without touching, on paper, the figure of the head of the apparatus, Santos Cerdán. The leader revolutionizes the PSOE, as he did with his government a year ago, and thereby suffocates the anxiety of his ranks, who asked him for a revulsion to reach the end of the legislature and face the successive battles with the PP (municipal and regional in May , general, in principle, at the end of 2023) with certain guarantees. The renewal of Ferraz’s heart, as corroborated by federal and territorial cadres, closer and more distant, felt good, it worked as a soothing for a very affected party after the debacle in Andalusia.
Because the blow given at the table by Sánchez is powerful. Adriana Lastra he precipitated the movements with his resignation as deputy general secretary, last Monday. But with it he gave rise to the leader to rebuild his first defensive line, choosing hardened profiles, “recognizable and solid”, thoroughbreds of the PSOE, respected in all latitudes, with “claw”. Precisely to send the message, as she said in the state of the nation debate, that “goes all out”. That revolts against the design of the polls.
The federal committee this Saturday, July 23, will say amen – a precooked dish and without debate, as the pure-blooded sanchistas were hurt – to the changes announced by drip this Thursday, in another perfectly calculated strategy by Moncloa. They are several. One, the president elevates his finance minister, Maria Jesus Monteroa woman of his entire trust, as deputy general secretary, replacing Lastra. Two, Patxi López, the first and only socialist Lendakari of democracy, the one who contributed to the end of ETA, is rehabilitated and becomes the new socialist spokesman in Congress, as a replacement for the canary Héctor Gómez. Three, another minister, that of Education, Pilar Alegría, assumes the PSOE spokesperson, who had slipped into media irrelevance on many occasions in the hands of his predecessor, Felipe Sicilia, a bishop from the already former number two. Four: the recovery of Miquel Iceta, president of the PSC. The Minister of Culture and Sports, a very experienced politician and a good connoisseur of the entrails of power, enters the executive to occupy the portfolio that the exlendakari now leaves, that of Democratic Memory and Laicity. None of the three ministers will leave their departments: they will thus combine party and government.
The real new socialist power
Fifth signal: Santos Cerdán continues to lead the Organization, now with a deputy, the young deputy for Jaén Juanfran Serrano, who already worked with him on the fifth floor of Ferraz. Serrano ceded his area, that of the Toledo and Inclusion Agreement, to Iván Fernández, mayor of Corvera (Asturias), the name that Sánchez had agreed with the head of the Principality, Adrián Barbón, to cover the Plaza de Lastra.
And sixth movement: the recycling of the ‘matins’, the Monday meeting that brought together the hard core of Moncloa and Ferraz. Sanchez assemble a decision group at the highest level to lead the reins of strategy and discourse. Restricted circle in which five ministers will penetrate -María Jesús Montero (Treasury), Félix Bolaños (Presidency), Pilar Alegría (Education), Isabel Rodríguez (Executive spokesperson)-, plus the spokespersons of Congress (Patxi López) and Senate (Eva Granados, who remains), the secretary of Organization (Santos Cerdán) and the director of the President’s Cabinet, Óscar López, another veteran of the PSOE already rescued after the extensive remodeling of the Government last year. those nine people constitute Sánchez’s first ring of trust. They are your Praetorians. there rest the real new socialist power, in charge of greasing and better coordinating the action of the Executive and the party. So that nothing screeches and to multiply the decibels of the messages.
The recomposition of the dome left juicy readings in an internal key. The most obvious, the one that is always emphasized, although perhaps not enough, is that only the president rules and decides. Only him. He has talked in recent days with the barons, but has not consulted with them about the appointments, and they gave him carte blanche. That is why it is Sánchez who reinvents himself again, implicitly acknowledging that the 40th Congress, last October, in Valencia, that of socialist unity, was politically unsuccessful, because after nine months he had to change the engine after a very severe setback at the polls: Andalusia. Now he bets, they insist on his environment and recognize outside of him, for “safe” values, leaders of “proven solvency”, heavyweights “and not featherweights”, authorized voices. Capable of facing the PP in the “great battle” that begins in a month. “We couldn’t not make decisions”, emphasize government sources. Those that are adopted now affect the PSOE, not the Executive, which the president prefers not to touch for now. Although nothing is ruled out.
“Total hits, all of them. It is a return to the PSOE that sanchismo, not Sánchez, had reviled”, “everything is better”“happy”, “increases the power of the federal executive”, was heard from the mouths of different leaders, although others warned against the “absolute monarchy” of Sánchez.