Spain is not up for parties and neither is the PSOE. The devastating consequences of the DANA as it passed through Valencia, the explosive statement of the confessed criminal Víctor Aldama, the relentless popular and judicial offensive against the Government, the unique financing for Catalonia, the differences with some baronies, the gap that separates the current leaders of those, those from then, those who are no longer the same…. Nothing suggests that next weekend will be a typical Federal Congress of the PSOE. Neither in the organic, nor in the ideological nor in the festive folklore.
Zero enthusiasm arouses among cadres and delegates an appointment that the management intends to settle with a new exaltation of unity around Pedro Sánchez. However, criticism comes from different territories for having maintained the event, despite the Valencian tragedy, for the absence of ideological load in the framework presentation and because changes are coming in the leadership of some territories starting in January, some of them sponsored from Ferraz.
The expectation, on the other hand, is minimal in the face of the changes that Sánchez may make in an Executive in which, today more than ever, the continuity of Santos Cerdán at the head of the Organization Secretariat is taken for granted, after the accusations without no evidence from the businessman Aldama against the number 3 of the party, to whom he attributed the collection of 15,000 euros in commissions for a contract. An accusation that Aldama extended with other amounts and for other concepts to the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, and to the chief of staff of María Jesús Montero, who will also remain in the deputy general secretary of the PSOE.
The majority in the party does not give any credit to Aldama’s story, neither in regards to his relationship with the President of the Government nor with any of his ministers. They have all filed a joint complaint against the leader of the corrupt plot and considered that “a country like Spain cannot allow the political agenda to be set by confessed criminals who slander without evidence, only to leave Soto del Real and sleep at home.”
There is no concern in either the PSOE or the Government in this regard, but there is indignation at the “spurious” use that the political and media right have made and will continue to make “of the testimony of a confessed criminal within the framework of their defense strategy.” ”say sources from the socialist leadership.
What both the Government and the PSOE do agree on is that if there is a socialist, beyond the Executive, who is in the crosshairs of Aldama’s corrupt plot within the framework of the so-called Koldo case but also of the Right, it is Santos Cerdán, whom the federal leadership considers “a victim of a hunt.” And not only because “he was the executor of the breakup and expulsion of the party of former minister José Luis Ábalos or because he is a person of the absolute confidence of the President of the Government, but because he is a key man in relations with the nationalist groups that are part of the parliamentary majority, especially in the dialogue with Junts and Bildu,” says a member of the leadership. Main negotiator with Junts of the amnesty law and the investiture agreement of Pedro Sánchez, it was precisely Cerdán who appeared in the image that rehabilitated Carles Puigdemont as a political interlocutor for socialism, after fleeing Spain in 2017 after declaring independence.
After the indictment of Ábalos and, months earlier, with the arrest of Koldo, the minister’s advisor, some media speculated with the possibility that Cerdán would leave the Federal Executive after the 41st Federal Congress. Pure rumormongery. Not only has Sánchez not given any sign in that direction, but these days he is working with Cerdán and also with Montero in the design of what will be his next direction. “If he had the slightest suspicion of corruption regarding Santos, the president’s pulse would not have trembled. He doesn’t have it and it doesn’t seem like it would ever be in his mind to do without him, but if at some point he had considered it, right now, removing him from management would spread over him a blanket of suspicion that does not exist and that the right would turn into evidence irrefutable of his involvement in the plot,” a minister speculates.
No changes in the Government either
With the continuity of the Deputy Secretary General and the Secretary of Organization guaranteed, the rest of the leadership of a party in the Government is something that, except for the political-media universe and territorial readings, lacks much interest. What’s more, no major changes are expected, except in the management spokesperson, where the departure of Esther Peña is taken for granted and there is speculation about the entry of Madrid councilor Enma López. Sánchez will surely maintain the entire current hard core, although he will incorporate new refreshment members from the different territories with an eye toward 2027.
All at a time when the President of the Government, after scoring the approval of the fiscal package, paves the way for the approval of the General State Budgets for 2025 and without more changes in his cabinet than the already confirmed replacement of Teresa Ribera by the current Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen, for the third vice presidency and the ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.
For the rest, we are already waiting to see how the debate on the unique financing of Catalonia develops, which is the issue that has aroused the most criticism in the territories and motivated 400 amendments of the more than 6,000 presented to the framework presentation, the 41st Federal Congress It will be the fourth re-election of Pedro Sánchez as general secretary. Little more.
Beyond singular financing, the Republic
Despite the fact that the framework presentation – which for many is more of an electoral program than an ideological document to lay the foundations of social democracy for the next four years – avoided any explicit allusion to the singular financing agreed with ERC to facilitate Salvador’s investiture Illa, the contributions from the territories have tried to put in black and white their rejection of the principle of ordinality that the Catalan socialists defend for the autonomous financing model. The document under debate in the federations says, however, that all Autonomies will have “more resources than at present” and that the future regional financing system will reinforce “equity, efficiency and solidarity” and “guarantee co-responsibility.” of the territories. In any case, no one expects heated discussions, much less breakups.
And beyond financing, there are classic amendments from all socialist conclaves that could not be missing in the 41st Federal Congress, such as those that question the Monarchy and advocate a horizon towards a Republic and ask that at least the opening of the debate in the organization about the state model. They have come from different federations and also, as usual, from the Socialist Youth. Neither these nor those that mention the revision of a part of the Agreements with the Holy See were ever approved. Some transactional that says one thing and the opposite to please everyone and that’s it.
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