The PSOE will complete its territorial renewal process at the end of 2025

The PSOE is immersed in a generational change that coincides with its moment of greatest territorial weakness after the electoral catastrophe of 28-M.

In a stage of uncertainty, the party needs to “consolidate strong leadership” in the autonomous communities “that even transcend the brand” of the party.

This was conveyed by Pedro Sánchez in the federal executive on Monday after the setback in Galicia, where the socialists worsened their results for the third consecutive election, sinking from 14 to 9 seats and with 45,000 fewer votes.

Two of the party's great leaders, Guillermo Fernández Vara and Ximo Puig, have advanced the succession in their federations to the opposition, which will culminate in March, while a new batch of territorial leaders has been at the helm of the party for just two years. in their communities.

The renewal of territorial leadership will not be completed until the end of 2025, after the party's next Federal Congress is held.

Seven of the 17 general secretaries were elected for the first time in 2021, all except the Andalusian Juan Espadas after the last Federal Congress.

None of them govern.

And of the three general secretaries appointed in 2017, the only one with territorial power is Adrián Barbón, president of Asturias since 2019. “This is like the

baby boom

generation .

Great territorial leaders like Guillermo and Ximo have retired at the same time, and we must let the new ones settle in,” they summarize in the leadership of the PSOE.

The seams of the waning territorial power of the socialists, who less than a year ago presided over nine autonomous communities - now they only do so in Castilla-La Mancha, Asturias and Navarra, and co-govern in Euskadi with the PNV - have become strained again in Galicia, where the situation was already complex.

It is the only socialist federation where there is currently a bicephaly: Valentín González Formoso has been the general secretary of the PSdeG since 2021, but the candidate in the 18-F disaster was José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, Pedro Sánchez's personal bet.

Besteiro was designated a candidate in October and the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda (PP), called for early elections in December.

“Our candidate joined in the final part of the legislature and Rueda called taking advantage of that circumstance,” María Jesús Montero explained this Tuesday.

“A part of that vote lent [to the BNG] will return to the PSOE when Mr. Besteiro has his time,” the first vice president of the Government and deputy general secretary of the PSOE explained on Cadena SER.

“He didn't even have three months to deploy his full potential,” Patxi López, spokesperson in Congress, stressed the same idea.

The setback in Galicia will not affect in any case the renewal and consolidation of territorial leadership, which will not be completed until the end of 2025. The statutes of the PSOE establish that the regional congresses, in which new leaders will be elected or the that already exist, will be held after the Federal Congress, which is scheduled for autumn of next year.

The last one was in October 2021 in Valencia and it is time to do it again "between the third and fourth year since the previous ordinary congress was held", although it could be postponed for a maximum period of one year, by express decision of the Federal Committee. the highest control body of the party between congresses, “when sufficient causes exist to justify it.”

The next period would correspond to the congresses in the territories.

“The regional, national or autonomous committees will convene their respective congresses, which must be held after the Federal Congress has been held, within a period of less than 90 days,” with the month of August not being a business day, according to the statutes of the PSOE in the second additional provision.

That is, the decision to set the date of the regional congresses to elucidate their leadership corresponds to the federations of the territories.

And almost everyone's plans do not include bringing them forward.

There will only be two exceptions and very relevant ones, those of Vara and Puig, who will not wait until the 41st Federal Congress in 2025 to say goodbye to the political front line.

The purpose is to consolidate as soon as possible an alternative government project to the PP in their communities, where the popular people co-govern with Vox.

Other veteran leaders, such as Javier Lambán, president of Aragón from 2015 to 2023 and general secretary since 2012, and Emiliano García-Page, president of Castilla-La Mancha since 2015 and general secretary since 2012, critical of the amnesty law, have already said that they will not stand for re-election, but the former is in no hurry to rush the calendar in his region.

The president of Congress, Francina Armengol, Balearic president between 2015 and 2023 and general secretary since 2012, does not plan to do so in the short term either.

Unit candidacy

The Minister of Science, Diana Morant, will replace Puig in the PSPV-PSOE after reaching a unity candidacy with the other two candidates, 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 an agreement sponsored by Ferraz.

Puig, Valencian president between 2015 and 2023, was the general secretary since 2012. But the longest-serving of all the current barons was Vara, in charge of the Extremaduran PSOE since 2008. In his federation there will be primaries: Miguel Ángel Gallardo, president of the Badajoz Provincial Council and mayor of Villanueva de la Serena, and Lara Garlito, vice president of the Assembly of Extremadura, presented the necessary endorsements to run last week.

The pre-candidacy of José María Vergeles, former Minister of Health, did not achieve the minimum required, 6% of the census (581 endorsements).

The militants will vote on March 2 and the process will conclude with a regional congress three weeks later.

A very different case from the changes in the Valencian Community and Extremadura is that of the PSC, which will ratify Salvador Illa as first secretary in mid-March at its 15th Congress.

The sister party of the PSOE has decided to bring it forward to have the internal machinery greased with a view to the Catalan elections, which if the legislature is completed would be within a year.

Illa is the socialist territorial leader best placed in the short term to win the presidency of a community after leading the PSC to victory in the 2021 regional elections. Eneko Andueza, general secretary of the PSE-EE since 2021, aspires for the Basque socialists to will once again be the key to the

Lehendakaritza

in the Basque elections, scheduled for April 21.

Montero to Page: "You have to know what your team's jersey is"

"You always have to know, when your team plays, what jersey you are wearing and that you are happy that your brand, your team, is achieving good results in the territories."

The number two of the Government and the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, has reprimanded Emiliano García-Page in this way, after the president of Castilla-La Mancha was happy about the victory of the PP by an absolute majority in the Galician elections.

The PSOE baron stated on Monday that, "if the PP had lost the absolute majority in Galicia", there would be talk of "the national consequences and the fall" of the party chaired by Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

And he concluded: "Surely they would be considering that it was a legitimization of the amnesty and [Carles] Puigdemont, right? If the PP had lost the majority, surely the winner would be Puigdemont. So I'm glad that Puigdemont didn't win."

"It is incomprehensible that he says this. I think that all socialists are happy when there is a regional president who wins the elections with our initials and we are all upset when that is not the reality," Montero objected in an interview on Cadena SER.

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