Ten hours of meeting, a gesture, a recess and an agreement. These four elements have made the state of mind of the PSOE deputies have turned around in seven days. From feeling political bewilderment to meeting again with the baton of the legislature. From despair to illusion. The President of the goverment achieved the mutation last Friday in Brussels. Since then, everything has been good news for the socialist caucus. 2022 already looks better.
That renewed spirit will be made visible and will be heard this Wednesday in Congress, where the debate on the last European Council and on a thorny issue, although it seems already forgotten: the crisis provoked with Western Sahara after the Government decided to support the autonomy plan offered by Morocco. This decision caused the loneliness of the PSOE in Congress to a point never experienced before, during this legislature. Not only the three main parties of the center-right, the right and the extreme right were stirred up, but also the parliamentary allies: ERC, EH Bildu, Más País, Compromís, and above all, United We Can. Everyone denounced the turn of Sánchez and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
They suffered this in Congress. Outside, the situation was no more rosy. The stoppages in transport produced images and stamps that the PSOE had been fearing for a long time, since Vladimir Putin began the invasion of Ukraine. Empty supermarket shelves, violent scenes between carriers, complaints from businessmen, angry citizens. What’s more, the electricity bill at very high levels and the gasoline turrets showing fuel prices at record highs.
The bad atmosphere inside Congress and the state of indignation outside formed a emotional cocktail very rarefied, and the socialist deputies digested it badly. Between them and they commented on it. At lunch, in meetings, and in hallway conversations. Now they comment that the feeling is different. Five sources from the socialist caucus tell this medium the mood swing.
Without news of the president, but yes of Zapatero
The Congress will be the scene, this Wednesday, of Sánchez’s first explanations, far-reaching explanations, about the historic turn with Western Sahara. “We needed it”, agree the sources you have asked The Newspaper of Spain. Albares was in charge last week of a first repertoire of clarifications, both in the Senate and in Congress, in the Foreign Affairs Committee. The mobilization of the argument did not satisfy the parliamentary partners and generated doubts in many socialist deputies.
They knew that the president would elaborate a few days later, on March 30, this Wednesday, and they appealed to that in their private conversations. Patience was a common term. The problem is that patience does not go well in convulsive contexts, like last week.
Other deputies were more understanding, either because of what they read in the media, or because of their coincidence with former socialist leaders at party events. For example, in Huescain a ceremony organized by the province’s federation on March 19, former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero delivered a conference that was reassuring to those present, including the Minister of Education, Pillar Joy.
Knowing that the turn with the Sahara was a sensitive issue for militants and organic cadres, the Huesca PSOE issued a press release after the act in which they included statements by the former president, statements like this: “Since 2008, our country supports the autonomy project presented as the basis for the negotiation process between Morocco and the Polisario Front, and the Government of Mariano Rajoy did not change its position”. Or this: Sánchez “has reaffirmed a smart position and determined that it does not determine the final result of a conflict that has lasted half a century”. Or this other: “Spain and the interests of our country demand a good relationship with Morocco”.
Ministers “burnt”
A socialist minister and deputy suffered in their flesh the discomfort of the opposition. The head of the parliamentary group, Héctor Gómez, experienced a meeting of the Board of Spokespersons tremendously tense, last Tuesday. As a result of the acceptance of a change of question from EH Bildu, to be formulated in the control session, the representative of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, asked to change the agenda of the plenary session of the week to include Sánchez’s appearance on the turn with the Sahara. The PSOE refused and the meeting became tense. The entire opposition urgently demanded the President’s assistance, but was unsuccessful. Hours later, the foreign minister made an effort to avoid criticism from the groups. Both Gómez and Albares found themselves completely alone.
The control to the Government of the following day put images and words to the discontent and the indignation. In the socialist bench they recognized that it was a bad day. “The concern was growing”, assures a deputy. “Unidas Podemos stopped going to the votes of some commissions, the carriers stopped and in the media scenes of shortages; the parliamentary majority seemed to crack“, he recalls to illustrate that concern.
To the list of problems it would be possible to add the tour of the president by diverse European countries and the consequent silence. The Government and the Socialist Party shielded themselves last week, on the internal communication level, waiting for the leader’s advances. “That absence of leadership and explanations did not help improve the atmosphere.” In conversation with this medium, one of the sources points out that even among the colleagues, one more fear was verbalized: that Minister Albares and the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, they came out “burnt”.
The inflection point
Friday arrived, the day of the European Council dedicated to managing the energy crisis. Sánchez had hinted, in the previous minutes, that more than a decoupling of gas in the electrical system, an agreement on the “Iberian exception” had to be expected. Spain and Portugal form “an energy island” due to a lower degree of interconnection with the networks and infrastructures of the rest of the continent.
The argument served, but had to overcome obstacles. A misleading leak that Sánchez would be willing to veto the agreements pissed off the president, who angrily got up from the table and left the Summit. After the recess, the deal was back on track. The European Commission, after ten hours of Council, accepted the position of Spain and Portugal.
In the coming weeks, a reference price that limits the gas rate will favor a drop in prices. The PSOE used social networks to proclaim the success of its leader, which was followed by a series of events related to the decree against the crisis arising from the war in Ukraine.
Decree approved this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers and that will be validated soon in Congress, since neither PP, nor ERC, nor Cs, nor PNV, nor EH Bildu, nor Más País have said that they are going to oppose it. The energy, fiscal and social measures, although with “buts” due to their supposed lack of ambition, have been well received. has helped the communication work made by the Ministry of the Presidency and Relations with the Courts, although the contacts arrived late, in the opinion of a deputy from the left-wing opposition.
This Monday started “better” than the previous one, points out a socialist position. The agreements with the carriers, the normalization of the food supply, the success of Brussels and a decree with a broad guaranteed consensus have brought about the mental mutation in the PSOE. Politics is moved by emotional impulses.
“Now the president has once again put himself at the head of the responses to the crisis,” emphasizes a socialist source. “His leadership has been more than demonstrated”proclaims another.
However, the Sahara remains pending. The concern and disbelief about it has mutated as well. The problem is latent, a communication problem, but it seems lighter, perhaps because of the speed at which events are taking place. “Everything is going so fast that we are already in something else”reflects another socialist source.