“What I want, above all, is to listen to you. That you tell me how you see it and that you are sincere.” With that invitation to the debate, Pedro Sánchez opened the meeting of the Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE that was held on Monday in one of the most delicate political moments for the party that is remembered in years. After the Santos Cerdán scandal, which last week put up to socialist ranks and made the Government's foundations creak, the president spent the weekend with his circle of closest collaborators, along with those who studied all the output options of a capital crisis. And Ferraz's conclave arrived to share some conclusions already preferred and also with the intention of testing the spirits.
His first intervention behind closed doors was concise, according to the attendees consulted. Sánchez moved his idea of a “Coral” Organization Secretariat that assumes the competences of former number 3 to the Federal Committee of July 5, in which the person who replaces him will be officially appointed. He also shared initiatives such as an appearance at his own request in Congress to give explanations, as well as a scandal research commission. And he came to talk about the “betrayal” of people like Cerdán who, according to several of those present, did not spend much time.
“It has been brief. He assumes that this specific case has a huge impact, although he has not used thick terms against him. He has spoken of disappointment and betrayal. But it has been very brief, he has asked to wait President to the man who, among other things, negotiated Amnesty's law with Carles Puigdemont for his last investiture. Another witnesses to Sánchez's intervention highlights the discomfort he expressed about the macho attitudes of the Ábalos-Koldo-Cerdán trio, which came to qualify as “repulsive comments”.
During the word shifts, very numerous among the 24 attendees, there were two resounding consensus. The first, an express support for the president's intention to sustain the legislature, if possible, until 2027. And the second, an explicit support also to his leadership after the personal wear and tear that involves the implication in serious cases of corruption of two men of his maximum confidence, and those who he healed up to the greatest fees of power in government and in the party.
“We know that there are a few who, in an interested way, have tried to force a debate about the president's leadership. But this is not in question. Neither the party questions Pedro Sánchez nor the militancy either. That we have quite clear. And the conclusion has also been unanimous that we do not go through the head nor a second to give the government to the PP already vox,” says a leader.
Another member of the Executive puts the emphasis on the need to protect the legacy of the progressive government that was addressed in the meeting. “If the PP and Vox want to govern, that they present a motion of censure, that the votes are curited in Congress and that they go and give their faces to the Spaniards to explain what their plan is. What can be forgotten is that we give them the government, because that would also be a tremendous irresponsibility towards the people who chose us for the implications that the ultra -right entry would have. reflection that was presented during the meeting.
Yes there were discrepancies, however, about the depth of the measures to be adopted. To several leaders who belong to the PSOE executive consulted by this newspaper, they seem openly “scarce” the driven decisions. And there were even several shifts of the word in which the celebration of an extraordinary federal congress was requested, a proposal that told, among others, with the express support of former Extremadura president Guillermo Fernández Vara.
Those who defended that initiative pointed out, according to another of the attendees, the need to “hook the militancy” and make it a participant of changes of greater draft at the height of the political crisis faced. A “great restructuring” endorsed by the bases to involve them in all decision making. But the vast majority of attendees did not validate the proposal.
“An extraordinary congress would now only serve to talk about our internal troubles, which is just what would move us even more about the people,” says one of the leaders who flatly rejected the proposal. A criticism that secretes another member of the Executive. “A Congress for what? To discuss names? To talk about people? We are not in that debate and also envive the refreies of the territories again. A congress is mounted for other things, not to choose an organization secretary. That's what the Federal Committee is, which is a legitimate body and the greatest transcendence,” he says.
Other voices proposed other forums that serve as a political impulse, mainly in the face of autumn, for a start of the course that the majority of the leaders consulted see so distant and with so many uncertainties in between that they would already consider a success to return from the summer with the capacity to give the battle to the PP. “There are colleagues who have proposed a political conference and others who have raised sectoral assemblies with the militancy. To approach us, to find an impulse after the coup,” explains one of the attendees.
In his closing speech, Pedro Sánchez did not expressly reject any of the options on the table, although he asked for time to act. “The president has defended the measures adopted, but he has not closed to anything. He has said that at this time people would not understand that we got into our merits, in reference to Congress. And that the priority now is to turn to the consolidation of the Government of Progreso. But it has also left the door open to make more decisions in the future, according to the events, and it has said that all the steps had not to be taken,” he explained now.
The intention now is that the measures announced, together with the interlocution with the partners of the coalition and congress, serve at least as a tourniquet for a wound that many in the party thought at the end of last week that would be deadly. The sensation after the executive is that the president's decisions have served, for the moment, to survive the most critical hours. But that we will have to do much more to consider, even, a future in the medium term that, in any case, is at the expense of the next news that can come from the courts.
