Between winning and vegetating, the extinct Madrid socialist federation –today PSOE-Madrid– was always more to conjugate the second verb than the first. Its history is littered with defeats, cainite wars, internal struggles, internal balances, stretcher tables, losers and survivors of politics with small letters. For something the most convulsive federation of socialism has been in the municipal opposition for a whopping 34 years and 28 waiting for the right to lose the regional government. For a reason it is today the fourth political force in the capital and third in the region. And for something it was also known in the past as the socialist Beirut.
Since Juan Barranco was evicted from the Mayor’s Office of Madrid with a vote of no confidence in 1989 and, six years later, Joaquín Leguina lost the regional government at the polls, no one has been able to straighten the course of an organization comfortably installed in the opposition. and accustomed to fratricidal fights for the crumbs of internal power and the presence on an electoral list.
The recently proclaimed candidate for the main City Council of Spain, the Minister of Industry Reyes Maroto, seems at least willing to try it, despite the risk of ending up devoured, as other applicants did before who were not liked by those who have spent decades with no other occupation than the entanglement and intrigue to maintain either the organic majority of a group or a starting position in the candidacies. Conquering governments never seemed an option among those who swarm in the stormy universe of Madrid socialism.
And with those wickerwork, and a dubious procedure, it was how Reyes Maroto had a snack last Monday afternoon with a list drawn up by the management of the Madrid city group headed by the current Government delegate, Mercedes González, and with which In principle, he had to attend the elections on May 28. A panel selected based on “dedocracy” in which some names had been voted for by the militancy and others exempted from submitting to the verdict of the ballot box, but in which, above all, organic charges without more life appeared in the starting positions employment than that provided by party membership while some of the names most supported by affiliates were relegated to the bottom positions.
The one who is not “the nephew of a historical woman” is the “partner of a professional intrigue”. And, whoever doesn’t, “controls the group of this or that neighborhood” at the service of “the ousted Mercedes González.” These were the widespread comments among the most veteran socialists when learning about the composition of a candidacy that caught Maroto by surprise. So much so that he took the phone to express his disagreement to the bosses of Ferraz street, who gave him carte blanche to set up his own team and amend the plate as much as he wanted.
The battle for the day after 28M
The resounding support of the federal Secretary of Organization to the candidate to introduce the changes that she believed necessary forced the suspension of the local Executive that was going to endorse the plate of the controversy. “You have your hands free. Try to reach an agreement with the local leadership of the party, but if that is not the case, we will intervene from Ferraz” was the slogan that the still Minister of Industry received.
Behind the names of the controversy and the order in which they appeared on the list was the hand of the Government delegate, who for months had seen herself as a candidate for Mayor but had to step back to cede the position to Maroto for express wish, not of Juan Lobato, but of Pedro Sánchez. Since then, González’s objective, according to sources from the organization, is none other than “to make a list to suit him and with an eye not on 28M but on 29M, to have control of the municipal group” in the case that the left is not able to govern the Madrid City Council.
Thus, in the number two position appeared the deputy in Congress, Secretary of Organization of the socialists of the capital and a trusted man of González, Daniel Viondi. From there, everything likely to achieve a councilor’s minutes – and no more than 11 are expected – was destined for the district general secretaries who are close to González and also critical of Juan Lobato, general secretary of the region and head of the list to community. “Names that far from projecting ambition to win what they project are the desire to lose to wage a new internal battle for control of the organization,” they acknowledge in the federal leadership.
Wink at feminism with Soledad Murillo
With the endorsement of Ferraz, Maroto has managed, as El Independiente announced this Wednesday, to include Soledad Murillo, former Secretary of State for Equality, as number two on his sheet, and to keep his campaign manager and City Councilor as three. from Madrid, Enma López, in what is a clear nod to feminism. It is the first time in the history of the PSOE that the first three positions of a candidacy are occupied by three women.
The Minister of Industry also places the renowned urban planner Antonio Giraldo as number nine, a name that did not appear previously, while Daniel Viondi, González’s right-hand man, drops from number two to seven. In compensation, Enrique Rico, nephew of the historic Dolores García Hierro and partner of Mónica Carazo, another socialist from the region with more ambition than work life, who was ousted from La Moncloa Iván Redondo and Francisco Salazar tried to rise from eight to five. unsuccessfully in the previous regional elections of Madrid to convert Ángel Gabilondo into a young promise by placing her as campaign manager.
Maroto promotes to number ten, with the possibility of being elected, councilor Emilia Martínez, doctor in Geography from the Autonomous University of Madrid and professor of Regional Geographic Analysis of the Department of Geography, who had been the most voted woman among the militancy but Surprisingly relegated to 19th place on the list prepared by the management of the city of Madrid.
From the federal they congratulate themselves that Maroto has broken with the distribution dynamics between the general secretaries to monopolize the starting positions. And also of having ruined a procedure – that of à la carte voting promoted by the city of Madrid – that was not regulated and “much less endorsed by the national leadership”. There are those who say it even in another way: “The growth to go on a candidacy is over.”
The mandate of the federal leadership to the candidate for Mayor only goes through “the preparation of a team of her confidence with whom she can work comfortably for the next four years and that does not make her life miserable, win or lose the elections” . A different question is that she achieves it and that Madrid ceases to be Beirut for Spanish socialism.
