The general secretary of the PSOE in Madrid, Juan Lobato, has always been very cautious in his public statements about a possible amnesty
As the circle closes around the amnesty and the agreement with the independentists Catalans so that Pedro Sánchez can form his next government, the greater the nervousness in the PSOE of Madrid. The bases are with the president, party sources accept, but only with them in Madrid it is impossible for their formation to advance and aspire to recover the votes that have been left by the wayside in recent years. The “nerves exist because it is going to be very difficult to explain” and because “there is still no known concession” on the part of the independentists that the Madrid socialists can cling to to complete their “story”: “The consequences for the project in Madrid could be very bad.”
“We are doing a balancing act. Juan (Lobato) is and will be these days a perfect tightrope walker“says a source close to the general secretary of the Madrid socialites, who recognizes that the leadership of the regional party has been living with concern since Sánchez announced in the federal executive committee that it was necessary to opt for the amnesty despite not having it in the party. program. “Of course he is uncomfortable, very uncomfortable, and he can’t not be”says another socialist deputy.
“Centralism” of Madrid
While in More Madrid This issue does not generate internal debate and they are all at one with the formation of a coalition government because their electorate wants it that way, this is another issue that returns to distance the two lefts in Madrid because in the Madrid PSOE they do have more doubts. “The turn in the argument is Copernican for the entire party, but it weighs especially heavily in Madrid,” reasons a third source from the party led by Lobato, who recalls that the Madrid socialist leader has reiterated on several occasions where should the limits be. The capital, the region, is not like the rest of Spain, no matter how much Ayuso insists that “Madrid is Spain,” these socialist sources from the Madrid Assembly explain. He “centralism“with which politics this region lives, they emphasize, is not so intense in others: “That is the problem, the centralism of Madrid and a certain anti-catalanism that is perceived in part of Madrid society, not so much that the PP does everything possible so that this issue is not forgotten.
The hope of the Madrid socialists is that the “wear and tear” they take for granted due to the amnesty will be forgotten as the months go by. Added to this is now the forgiveness of part of Catalonia’s debt with the State (approximately 20% of the 86.8 billion euros it owes for having benefited from the Autonomous Liquidity Fund -FLA- in the past). The PSOE has made it extendable to other autonomous communities and the measure Madrid will also benefit in some way even without having any debt with the State, but despite this “compensation”, the response of Ayuso, who has been the one who has led the rejection of the haircut these months, has been that “democracy today is for sale” with this agreement .
The PP, for the PSOE in Madrid
That the PP is not going to give up in remembering Sánchez’s pacts with the independentists has become clear in the control session this Thursday. The president of the PP of Madrid herself, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, reminded Lobato that he is the one who, in statements to the press, has said in recent months that “the pro-independence parties are insatiable and will ask for that and more”, in relation to the amnesty. A few minutes later, the PP spokesperson in the Madrid Assembly, Carlos Diaz-Pachewanted to expose Lobato for going out to “applaud the amnesty like a teenager at an Aitana concert” at the federal committee last weekend.
Today Democracy is for sale.
Sánchez is a danger for Spain.
The silence of the PSOE turns the socialists of all communities into independentists.— Isabel Díaz Ayuso (@IdiazAyuso) November 2, 2023
And this is really putting the finger on the sore for the socialist leader because those around him claim that he did not feel comfortable with that applause. But he does not govern like Emiliano García Page does in Castilla-La Mancha or Javier Lambán in Aragon at the time, and he still does not have enough strength within the party to stand, point out the same sources, who explain that they know that if he goes too far outside the official lines there are “comrades in the party” who will work for Ferraz to show him the “way out.”
The tension with which the Madrid PSOE leadership is experiencing this matter has been made evident in Lobato’s own intervention in the Assembly. For the first time in his almost two years at the head of the party, this Thursday he was the one who brought up the name of Puigdemont before Ayuso herself in an attempt to anticipate possible criticism, which was expected from the president but surprisingly has barely outlined this Thursday. “I know that you are very concerned today about whether I am comfortable with Puigdemont, as with Cuba, with Venezuela or with ETA, but what worries me today here in the Madrid Assembly is seeing precisely you so comfortable without doing nothing with 30% youth unemployment,” Lobato began.
“In Madrid the PP’s speech that everything is given to Catalonia prevails,” explains a socialist deputy who is concerned about how to overcome the speech, although in the extension of the debt forgiveness for all autonomous communities They can find an alibi. Despite all the doubts and difficulties, in any case, the public argument launched by the party leadership is that “the unilateralism” defended by the independentists has now been overcome. “Are Necessary gestures in the dialectic of other parties“, Lobato pointed out mid-morning, before learning about the agreements reached between the PSOE and ERC, but he pointed out to the buses that “such a complex, brave and risky investiture agreement clearly includes the renunciation of unilaterality, “It is an agreement that in itself is already a resignation because it enters a framework of dialogue.” “This must be said, explained,” party sources later urged, trying to do a pedagogy exercise, arguing that this is part of the transfer. of the independentists, agree to go step by step and not impose their demands on their own.
The discomfort of the party leadership in Madrid and the doubts about how the entire process has been planned does not prevent a public closing of ranks. From the management the bases are being encouraged so that everyone can vote in the consultation that Ferraz has launched in person, so that “speculation is avoided” about the result, and no one internally doubts the support that Sánchez will receive. “Here the alternative, a repeat election or a possible PP government with Vox, weighs more than what happens with the amnesty,” but they insist that this is in reference to the party, not to Madrid society.
“This is only countered by a very powerful social agenda that makes the citizens, also the people of Madrid, see that it is worth having a progressive government,” confesses a member of the party who, although in favor of an agreement with the independentists, has reservations about how it may affect the future of the party. And he adds that he believes that “the cycle will close” if in the next Catalan elections in 2024 the PSC he manages to regain control of the Generalitat, even if it is with a tripartite government. The result of those elections, he points out, could be key to the drift of the PSOE at the national level and of course in Madrid.