The PSOE executive analyzes the 4-M disaster with an eye on Andalusia

Pedro Sánchez at the closing of the PSOE campaign in the Madrid electoral campaign.Andrea Comas / EL PAÍS

The federal executive of the PSOE analyzes this afternoon the two fronts, to which more complicated, that have been opened to Pedro Sánchez in the last three days. And they are neither more nor less than in Andalusia, the main federation of the party, and the always indomitable federation of Madrid, on fire from the 4-M disaster. The fifty members of the plenary of the management have been summoned in person and telematically to a meeting in which no serious criticism of the strategy followed in Madrid is expected. More than anything because the Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Socialists was personally involved in the preparation of the list headed by Ángel Gabilondo. However, the meeting has started with the resignation of José Manuel Franco, the general secretary of the PSOE in Madrid, on the table.

Moncloa assumed the campaign strategy, criticized in the socialist ranks for having aspired to grow, with a moderate discourse, at the expense of the 630,000 voters of Ciudadanos. When it was seen that it was an impossible mission, Gabilondo veered to the left and opened a pact with Pablo Iglesias after a month closing to that option. The turnaround ended up frustrating the traditional voters of the PSOE, where the discourse of not lowering taxes, identical to that of the PP, did not catch on either. The fact is that, two days after the elections, no one has resigned due to the electoral fiasco. Gabilondo has not yielded for the moment to pressure to resign from the act of deputy in the Assembly, which is constituted on June 8. There have been no organic changes either,although prominent members of the list are in favor of a manager leading the Madrid federation until the regional congress scheduled for November. The executive that the Madrid Socialists celebrated on Wednesday raised spirits even more. In it, two mayors called for the resignation of the leadership en bloc and an extraordinary congress.

In this context, Ferraz will approve the process of primaries in Andalusia this Thursday afternoon. The support for what Sánchez says will be total: all the members of the executive except the Extremaduran president, Guillermo Fernández Vara, and Patxi López, candidate in the 2017 primaries, then supported the leader of the PSOE. The intention was to call the primaries next Monday, the day the executive meets by custom, but Susana Díaz's decision to call the Andalusian PSOE leadership this Wednesday accelerated the deadlines. Everything indicates that the vote that will resolve once and for all the pending accounts between Sánchez and the former president of the Board will be on June 13. That is the date proposed by the Andalusian federation. The information campaign would take place between May 30 and June 12. No one doubts that it will be very tense.

Sánchez's victory in the May 2017 primaries, in which he was elected by more than half of the militants who participated in the process against Díaz, who started as a favorite, did not close a crisis that led the PSOE to the limit. Since then the President of the Government and the former president of Andalusia have tried various approaches. There was even talk of reconciliation. Four years in which the wounds, despite the attempts of both sides, have not healed. And the few bridges that had been rebuilt no longer exist.