The PSOE clears the way for Juan Espadas to be the leader in Andalusia at the end of July

Juan Espadas already has a clear path to succeed Susana Díaz as future secretary general of the PSOE of Andalusia. The former president of the Board and loser of the process in which the militancy elected the mayor of Seville will convene on July 12 a steering committee to celebrate that month the primaries that will resolve the leadership in the main socialist federation. Thus, the deadlines that Ferraz had in mind are met and EL PAÍS advanced last week within the pressure to force Díaz's departure. The forecast is that the process will be resolved quickly: it would be a surprise if an alternative to Espadas was presented. And in that case it should achieve 2% of the endorsements of direct members and affiliates, just over 900. A very high bar without organic force. Therefore,if there are no surprises, Espadas will be the new leader of the Andalusian Socialists on July 23. In the event that there is more than one applicant who achieves the guarantees, the process would go to September 5, due to the fact that August is non-working.

In a joint appearance at the regional headquarters of the PSOE agreed in detail, Espadas and Díaz stressed that the agreement, which had the prior approval of the federal leadership, avoids the "fracture of the party" and allows a smooth transition. The candidate for the Board has ensured that the advancement of the primaries to the general secretary will give "stability" to the organization and will prevent "there are different messages" and the party teams know "who they have to attend to." Espadas has made it clear that there will be no extraordinary congress and the regional congress will be, as the statutes indicate, after the 40th federal congress in October. As of its proclamation, Espadas will act as full secretary general.The mayor of Seville has explained that he ruled out an extraordinary congress because he considers that "it is not necessary" given the availability of Díaz to collaborate, to "pitch in" as she has said. Neither is a manager because "it gives a feeling of rupture". "If he had observed a conflict with the secretary general, he would have demanded the resignation or the manager, but there is not," he emphasized.

Two weeks after the overwhelming result of the primaries, both leaders have resolved, showing absolute harmony, the uncertainty that had paralyzed the Andalusian PSOE. The new territorial reference of the party and its predecessor have avoided at the last minute the outbreak of the crisis that was brewing: Ferraz had already transmitted that he would impose a calendar on the federal committee - the highest decision-making body between congresses and controlled by Pedro Sánchez - of the July 3 if the transition was unsuccessful. Díaz, who arrived first at the San Vicente headquarters, has emphasized that since the night of June 13 he was clear that the direction of regional politics corresponded to the winner and that "his absolute will" has been to put himself at his disposal. . Up to three times,The former president of the Board and secretary general since 2013 has complained about "the intoxications, falsehoods and lies" that, in her opinion, have occurred in this process, alluding to the fact that she has not insisted on continuing in office by not present his resignation, as demanded by numerous leaders and the federal leadership.

After the counting of the votes of the militants in the primaries to designate the candidate to the Junta, in which Espadas prevailed with a support of 55% and a difference of 16 points, Díaz made himself available to Espadas to recover the Junta , announced that she would not run for reelection as general secretary, assured that she would "step aside" and that she saw "no reason" to leave the general secretariat before the regional congress. That decision to remain in office ignited the alerts in the federal leadership and in most of the leaders related to Espadas, who considered that the best thing was the resignation of the former president. In these leaders, distrust is and was total. In memory remains indelible what happened on October 1, 2016,when Díaz led the operation against Pedro Sánchez who ended up resigning as general secretary.

Diaz plant

Last Thursday Espadas and Díaz held a meeting to close an agreement in order to announce it the next day and thus respect the prominence of the interview of the socialist candidate with the president of the Board, Juan Manuel Moreno, held that same Thursday in Parliament Andalusian.

The terms of the pact were outlined, but the information from EL PAÍS published that day, in which it realized that the federal leadership was going to convene primaries in July in the Andalusian federation during the federal committee on July 3, seeing that Díaz did not resigned from office, truncated plans.

The forecast was to close the transition on Thursday and announce it on Friday. In the end, this Monday was the deadline that Ferraz gave Díaz to stage an agreement. According to sources at the highest level of the federal leadership and the Andalusian PSOE, the former president of the Board stood up then and demanded that Espadas clarify in a note, which he wrote in his "handwriting", that it was not she who put resistance to its immediate departure nor that it was entrenched. "I asked him not to resign or resign, but to coordinate a solution so that he did not have to constitute a manager," said Espadas, who assured that Díaz did not exercise any "block".

It was an abrupt turn of the script by the mayor of Seville, which dislodged his people and the federal leadership, with which he had agreed on the steps to follow to end bicephaly in the Andalusian PSOE as soon as possible. Twenty-four hours before Diaz's demand, Espadas limited himself to answering the question about what was preventing the resignation. “Susana Díaz speaks about Susana Díaz. There are no internal problems, ”he said. Then he did not clarify that he had asked him or anything like that. Also that same day, from his surroundings, they insisted that a transition manager "was not a trauma" and the step back from Díaz was considered the most logical thing to do.Regarding the reasons for this turnaround, both in Ferraz and in the surroundings of the mayor, they recognize that it is a kind of "concession" and "toll" to achieve a non-traumatic solution in the Andalusian socialist federation. The sources consulted from the federal leadership acknowledge that the alteration in Espadas's speech could be interpreted as a clash with Ferraz, but they deny that extreme and attribute it to the search on the fly for a solution to the crisis that unleashed the information in the that this newspaper was advancing the movement that the PSOE staff had in mind.but they deny that extreme and attribute it to the search on the march for a solution to the crisis that unleashed the information in which this newspaper advanced the movement that the PSOE staff had in mind.but they deny that extreme and attribute it to the search on the march for a solution to the crisis that unleashed the information in which this newspaper advanced the movement that the PSOE staff had in mind.

Andalusian leaders now believe that the decision to avoid a manager, which is the responsibility of the federal leadership, paradoxically dismantles one of the arguments that Díaz used against Espadas during the campaign of the primaries for the candidacy for the Junta, when he argued that in those In elections the militants decided on a model of an “autonomous” party or “a branch of Madrid”.

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What remains unclear is Díaz's immediate future. For now, she will remain in the Andalusian Parliament as a deputy and has indicated that she will attend the next plenary session. She has not ruled out her march to the Upper House as a senator by autonomous designation. “Now it touches the organic issue, the institutional comes later. We will continue in the pit, where my party claims me. I have no problems. I am loyal to the PSOE ”, he stressed. If she is appointed senator while retaining the Andalusian seat, Díaz would be spared the Parliament's appointments committee where, in theory, the groups examine candidates for the Senate.

Once the steering committee is held, Espadas wants to appoint an organizing committee for the congress with people he trusts. Until the celebration of the conclave, from the second half of October, the regional executive, in which before the primaries there was a clear majority of Díaz, will remain the same. Espadas has also not ruled out expanding the regional leadership with new additions.

The councilor, who must consolidate his new leadership, intends to keep the communication channels well-oiled both with Ferraz and with the central government with "coordinated and communicated strategies," as he said on Sunday, June 20, when the federal leadership organized quickly and running an act in the Andalusian capital to wrap up Espadas, which was not attended by either Díaz or any significant leader of the regional executive. In these cases, the substitution is covered by the organization secretary.

That weekend he already set about strengthening ties with the party and the government. He held two separate meetings: one with the federal secretary for organization, José Luis Ábalos, and with the secretary for territorial coordination and government-PSOE relations, Santos Cerdán. The protagonists of the other appointment, also in Seville, were the head and the deputy director of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, Iván Redondo and Francisco Salazar. The recovery of the Junta, after almost 37 years of socialist governments, and avoiding the consolidation of the PP transcends the PSOE of Andalusia.