The socialists cling to Zapatero as a new reference after years of absence of González and Guerra, already “distant” for the majority of the militancy
“I don’t know what to do with this man anymore.” Three people who were there confirm it. This was what Pedro Sánchez, general secretary of the PSOE, said about the former president when on Saturday, October 29 of last year, the party organized an impressive event for Felipe González in Seville for the 40 years of a victory that changed Spain. González was “cold”, “distant”, he avoided many greetings in the VIP room, he showed his anger because the match I had not invited Alfonso Guerra and all the former ministers of his government, the witnesses of that meeting recount. Then on stage he displayed his oratory and the event went well, admit those who spent weeks working for that great rally, which behind the scenes he certified that the chemistry between Sánchez and González was never going to exist. There was a bitter aftertaste, Sánchez’s team became convinced of the impossible relationship between both leaders, marked by the support of González to Susana Díaz in the primaries and the frontal rejection of the former socialist leader to a pact with Podemos.
Now, the PSOE is facing a very complicated political moment and from the party’s command bridge they puff: “Felipe as always, helping”, ironically those who have the negotiation of an investiture that strains the party because it depends on Junts, which asks for amnesty for those accused of the Catalan process and a new self-determination referendum. The message they convey from Ferraz is that What González or Alfonso Guerra says no longer carries as much weight. “There is a emotional breakdown”, several leaders repeat. They were everything in the party, González was general secretary from 1974 to 1997 and president of the Government between 1982 and 1996, an icon of the Transition, but that was already, they explain in the PSOE, many years ago, so much so that among the majority of militancy, from 50 years onwards, “there is not even emotional tear”. On the other hand, the veterans, those who disagree with the strategy, warn that there is a noise of sabers that remembers the one that shook the PSOE in the prelude to the operation that was carried out on the fateful October 1, 2016 that broke the party in channel. “False,” says Ferraz.
“Wear” of his figures
“Felipe left the Government 27 years ago and has dedicated himself to making his life, to his businesses. Many people don’t understand revolving doors. He has been touring Latin America for years. Since when have you not set foot in a PSOE group? I could not tell you. I don’t even remember it. He charges for the conferences he gives. There are no emotional ties with the vast majority of the militancy. The new generations don’t even know him, beyond a television character, from the Transition, there are no links. Felipe’s time has passed.” The reflection is from a weighty leader of the Andalusian PSOE. The unanimous message, possibly agreed within the party, tries to minimize the pain that González is now causing. embraced as a reference for the PP and his words against agreeing on an amnesty, “not because he is against it, but because he knows that saying it does harm and also because that moment has not yet arrived,” says a key figure in the party.
From the federal leadership there is concern about the effect it may have among the Andalusian militancy, the one most attached to González and Guerra, his words, but the party leadership in Andalusia assures that “there are no fissures,” “the militancy is with Pedro ( Sánchez)”. The only problem, they point out, is “the media echo” that they still have. He great reference now he is José Luis Rodríguez Zapaterothe new ‘auctoritas’, the one that filled the closing ceremony of the general campaign in La Rinconada (Seville) and that raised the morale of the militants with an interview with Carlos Herrera at the ‘COPE’ that these days has returned to circulate as in a campaign in the socialist groups, to contrast it with the intervention of Felipe González with Carlos Alsina in ‘Onda Cero’.
“It hurts us very, very much”
“Felipe (González) is a few years older than us and has always been our political, ideological reference and beyond that, I have colleagues who registered their first child with the name Felipe.. But for us, the PSOE is above its leaders. It has always been like this. Everyone can have their opinion, we have never been about dogmas or doctrines, but our common thread, our backbone, has always been loyalty to the PSOE. That’s why It hurts us, it hurts me a lot that is placed in a position that is objectively harming the party.” Speaks Pepe Romero, the only one of dozens of socialists consulted by this newspaper who has agreed to speak without hiding in anonymity. He was the one who addressed the former president last Thursday, when upon attending a tribute organized by the Seville Chamber of Commerce, he approached to greet a dozen veterans with a banner (“Always PSOE. Before with Felipe, now Pedro Sánchez” ;).
“I was sure that if he saw us he would come and say hello. He knows us and does not shy away from these things. “He knew it perfectly,” says this historic militant. His profile summarizes well where the emotional tear is: in González’s villa. The veterans who came to the doors of the event are part of a group called “Young Socialists of 68”. They meet from time to time to talk about politics and life, current events and grandchildren. They have their book club. The last time they were chatting precisely about the amnesty in the ‘Pepe Romero room’ of the UGT in Seville. The union labeled a space with the name of the man who is ‘ugetist’, honorary president of the union in Seville and a socialist militant since 1967. Other times, the gathering is at the Casa de Extremadura in the Andalusian capital. They went to see Felipe González after meditating on it together, they wanted “a minority call, no social networks”, they just needed to express to the former president how his opinions hurt them.
Romero is part of the third generation of his family that went to prison to fight against the Franco dictatorship. Among those who came to carry the banner, “Felipe knew two of us from prison, but I don’t want to talk much about that either.” As a union member, Romero spent a lot of time in the labor office of Capitán Vigueras where González started and forged his legend. “We just wanted to convey our feeling of pain, there is many people who say things but it doesn’t hurt us like Felipe. “What hurts me the most is that he is placed in a position that is objectively harming the PSOE,” says Romero, who was a Labor Minister in the Andalusian Government, a senator, a councilor, who enrolled in university at the age of 40 and He retired, he presumes, in his job, outside of public office. He is 75 years old, he grew up in Bellavista, the working-class neighborhood of Seville where González grew up, in the gang of the former president’s younger brother, now deceased. “We carry that photo of the founder, of Pablo Iglesias“, to remember that the PSOE is 140 years old and the leaders pass, one after another, but the PSOE will always be PSOE.”
The PSOE subtracts drama
The party plays down the drama of the emotional situation: “In the provincial PSOE groups there is no earthquake when they speak. There is a deterioration of its political figures,” says a provincial leader. In the award organized by the Seville Chamber of Commerce there were no Not one of the 60 socialist mayors of the province and no one in the groups called to ask for invitations. On Tuesday the first president of the Junta de Andalucía, Rafael Escuredo, who is being very active in networks in favor of Sánchez and against the politicians of his generation, presents a book and says the PSOE of Seville that “the phones are falling down” asking for invitations.
At the subsequent dinner they offered in honor of González, they did not even stay. Juan Espadasgeneral secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, nor Javier Fernandez, president of the Provincial Council and general secretary of the PSOE of Seville. They both went because if they didn’t go the news would be his absence. Juan Manuel Moreno, leader of the Andalusian PP and president of the Board, did stay until the end chatting at the table with González, Alfonso Guerra also had dinner, but at another table. The former presidents Manuel Chaves and José Rodríguez de la Borbolla They limited their presence to the event, they did not have dinner. For many socialists that event was indigestible but the PSOE denies that there was an internal crisis. From the famous ‘tortilla photo’who was a friend of González, Luis Yanez, He did not go to the event and wanted to write his feelings on social networks: “I am very surprised that my friends (for 60 years), Felipe and Alfonso, lend themselves to the game of our adversaries, going to their forums and allowing themselves to be tapped on the back. Don’t count on me.” It was “sad” to see this display of the PP praising the former president, “painful,” adds another assistant.
Gonzalez He charged against the expulsion of Nicolás Redondo. He recalled that his father staged a general strike and did not kick him out. That strike was in 1988. Someone who was very close to González at the time was outraged by that criticism. Redondo Sr., former general secretary of the UGT, resigned from his seat in Congress a year earlier (October 1987) for disagreeing with the General State Budgets. “No one fired him but it was the most important bankruptcy we have ever had with what was the sister union, UGT. That was much more painful than expelling the son who was going on a campaign with Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Where is it going to stop? The memory of Felipe (González) is limited to his battles with the heads of state of Latin America, for the rest & mldr; “I’m going to shut up,” says a historic socialist. “I was there.” The PSOE is outraged by the question of whether they will open a file on González and Guerra and categorically deny that possibility. “Are PSOE heritagewe like more or less what they say.