The candidates to succeed the general secretary of the PSPV-PSOE, Ximo Puig, the general secretary of the PSPV-PSOE in the province of Valencia, Carlos Fernández Bielsa (i), and Alejandro Soler (c), and the Minister of Science, Diana Morant , during the National Committee of the Valencian socialists held this Saturday in Valencia. Kai Försterling (EFE)
The three candidates to lead the PSPV-PSOE have reached an agreement this Tuesday to join a single candidacy led by Diana Morant, 43 years old.
The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities will head the executive of the second socialist federation in Spain in number of militants (almost 18,000) and will include the mayor of Mislata and general secretary in the province of Valencia, Carlos Fernández Bielsa, and the general secretary in the province of Alicante, Alejandro Soler.
In this way, primaries whose deadline for presenting pre-candidacies ended this Tuesday are aborted and internal wear and tear that could harm the minister above all, due to her greater public exposure, and consequently, the Government, is avoided.
The agreement has been forced by the federal leadership of the PSOE, whose Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán, has brought together the three candidates during the day at the socialist headquarters located on Ferraz Street in Madrid to avoid a confrontation between them.
The terms of the pact have not yet been made known, but sources from two candidates and the socialist leadership have confirmed to this newspaper the principle of agreement that essentially grants Morant the general secretary of the party in the Valencian Community, replacing Ximo Puig, which makes her the virtual future candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in 2027. It remains to be seen what role both Soler and Bielsa, who retain the organic reins of the party in the provinces of Valencia and Alicante, will play.
The agreement is minimal and must be developed in the coming weeks.
This Monday, Santos Cerdán called Soler and Bielsa, on the one hand, and then called Morant to join the meeting.
In this way, an agreement has been reached that had been impossible during the multiple meetings between the three in recent weeks.
Ferraz wanted to avoid a confrontation during the long month of primaries, whose first vote was scheduled for February 25 and the second on March 3, if no candidate exceeded 50% support from the militants.
In addition, the process had to be opened to elect delegates for the extraordinary congress scheduled for March 22 to 24 in Benicàssim.
It will be in this conclave when the agreement that will place a woman at the head of the PSPV-PSOE for the first time in her history must be formalized.
The setting of the date of the congress was postponed twice to gain time so that positions could be brought closer.
It did not happen either in the Valencian Community or in the PSOE convention in A Coruña.
The three candidates presented their candidacies surrounded by their support.
The defense of each one's position presaged an internal division during a long two-month process until the congress.
Bielsa and Soler have always shown themselves willing to agree, even the latter has postulated for a bicephaly in the leadership of the party with two different people in the general secretary and in the candidacy for the Valencian Government.
Both had reached an agreement under which the one who obtained the least support in the first vote would add their support to the other in the second round against Morant, who had the support of former Valencian president Ximo Puig.
The still general secretary has tried to make the three candidates converge into one, which has finally happened under the tutelage of the number three of the PSOE.
Morant made a show of force on Monday by gathering more than half a thousand militants to present her candidacy in Gandia, a city of which she was mayor between 2015 and 2021. There she appealed to Sánchez's “bravery” and his example, with numerous references to the president of the government, who appointed her minister in 2021 and reinforced her in the last cabinet by adding the Universities portfolio.
Publicly, Ferraz has avoided positioning himself against the three candidates, but the gestures towards Morant have been unequivocal, as could be seen at the convention in A Coruña.
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