Pedro Sánchez is already warming up and waiting for Felipe VI. asks him to go to the investiture on Tuesday if the predictions come true. Without even 24 hours having passed since the end of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s failed attempt, the incumbent Prime Minister and Secretary General of the PSOE has taken a step forward. And he did so, supported by the leadership of the Andalusian PSOE, at a major event in La Rinconada (Seville) – one of the few socialist bastions that resisted the right-wing tsunami of March 28 – and asked for the opportunity to appear investiture, which in the dreamed scenario in Ferraz and La Moncloa could be brought forward to mid-October. The calendar will largely depend on ERC and Junts, which in recent days have increased their demands and added to the amnesty the taboo word that no socialist talks about: the obligation to hold a referendum on self-determination. The PSOE has already made it clear that this is a red line that it will not cross. The amnesty for the defendants in the trial is a different story. Since the Socialists do not go into detail – Sánchez said he would speak with “transparency” once he received the order from the king – the measure would be conditional on abandoning unilateralism, according to government sources.
“Feijóo said that he can be president of the government, but that he doesn’t want to be… He is so used to lying to everyone that he is lying to himself. But there he is. We are saying here that we socialists want this. “That we will work for a real investiture, not a false investiture, that we will work for an investiture so that there is a progressive government, with four more years of social progress and rights for the Spanish people,” announced the President in performances in front of 3,000 militants and sympathizers from all over Andalusia. “And for another four years of coexistence and harmony,” he concluded, calling on him to take his turn and try to win the trust of Congress to pursue his reformist agenda: one of the commitments to which he referred and which are included in the electoral program of the Congress 23rd-J, guarantees that the minimum wage is always 60% of the average salary in Spain, injects 5,000 million annually into the pension fund, the climate emergency or the adoption of the law on equal representation of women and men in politics and administration and the corporate sector.
The rally was not a mere provincial event, but has developed into a regional event in which all the provincial secretaries of Andalusian Socialism took part. “For four years I have had more desire than ever before, more strength and more arguments than ever before. We cannot recover the lost time, but we can guarantee every effort to make a real investment. We will put our heart and soul into it,” affirmed Sánchez in the tent of El Abrazo, the urban space where he held his first production as a candidate to receive the investiture mandate after the failure of Feijóo. The intended message of the election of La Rinconada, where the Socialists have enjoyed absolute majorities for four decades, was pride in “party patriotism” in the face of the right-wing thesis that Sanchismo is above the PSOE.
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The PSOE of Andalusia, the largest socialist federation (45,000 members), has shown that it is united behind Sánchez. There are currently no visible cracks until negotiations with the independence parties to renew the government formally begin. The interviewed provincial secretaries, mayors and other senior officials say that, in their perception, the amnesty is not a priority issue on the street, unlike inflation and purchase prices or interest rates, but they recognize that at the same time it is an expectation of knowing details about the Content of the agreement with ERC and Junts. That Sánchez had broken his silence on the amnesty, a word he did not even utter at the PSC Rose Festival in Gavà (Barcelona) last Sunday, would have been quite a surprise at a party event in Bajo Guadalquivir.
The Secretary General of the PSOE of Andalusia, Juan Espadas, has expressed this “strong support” for the party leader and incumbent president. “Within a month we will have Pedro sworn in as president,” predicted Espadas, who has vigorously defended the negotiations as aiming for a “great agreement.” “We have to defend that we want a progressive government and not one of the right with the extreme right.” “Not a single socialist should stay in his house without defending this president,” he added.
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Pedro Sánchez, at the PSOE event this Saturday in La Rinconada (Seville). PACO PUENTES
The socialist leaders indirectly alluded to the criticism leveled against Sánchez by two PSOE leaders, Felipe González and Alfonso Guerra, based on a hypothetical amnesty. The presence of Luis Yáñez-Barnuevo at the rally, where he occupied a prominent place, gave them the opportunity to justify the current leadership. The Secretary General of the PSOE of Seville, Mayor of La Rinconada and President of the Provincial Council, Javier Fernández de los Ríos, expressed himself most clearly: “Being a socialist means having a different opinion, being controversial, having different points of view, But being a socialist means, above all, being humble and loyal and showing respect and consideration to our Secretary General. This can never be lost because we are all the same, there are no Militants A and Militants B. We are all the same.”
The deputy general secretary of the PSOE and acting finance minister, María Jesús Montero of Seville, also confirmed the number of experienced militants such as Luis Yáñez who had to stand up and greet those present. But the number two Socialists focused their intervention primarily on criticizing the PP’s inability to expand the 172 supporters (PP, Vox, UPN and Canary Coalition) with whom it set out for the inauguration at the end of August: “Since the 23rd In July they knew they would not be able to govern. They disguise it as dignity, but it’s math.”
“If anyone had any doubts, this week we saw, to say the least, a leader of the defeated PP. Feijóo does not have a country project, he provoked from the first minute the President of the Government and already opposed Pedro Sánchez, without any idea to propose an alternative. They disguise it as dignity, but someone who claims that he does not accept any conditions from any group, even though he knows that it is not possible to join another group due to his alliance with the extreme right, has no dignity,” the number grabbed two from the PSOE. Vox’s support has made it impossible for the PNV to vote for Feijóo’s valiant attempts. And the investiture debate only served to worsen the PP’s relationship with the Basque nationalists.
In an enthusiastic atmosphere, criticism from the right and from González and Guerra meant that the PSOE was huddled in anticipation of Sánchez’s next move. Questions about the amnesty remain unresolved. The PSOE strategy takes a different path and appeals to coexistence and dialogue as a guide to resolving the political and territorial crisis in Catalonia. And the solidarity took place without any breaks. “Being a socialist means being left-wing, but above all it means being courageous. This must be done not for the party or its leaders, but for Spain and its people. It is not that Pedro Sánchez has the right to do this, but that his main task is to create a climate of coexistence in the country. The word Eintracht means with heart. “We feel Spanish wherever we live,” declared the leader of the Sevillian Socialists, who, like Sánchez, has claimed the role of the Socialists in drafting the constitution.
The incumbent president has underlined his commitment that the PSOE will not ignore the constitution in order to meet the demands of the independence movement in return for its support. “Today there is more coexistence and harmony thanks to the dialogue that we have promoted over the years. We don’t hand out constitutionalism cards; We are involved in drafting and following the Constitution and all its articles every day of the year. Not like them, who hijack the judiciary because they think it belongs to them,” emphasized Sánchez, in an implicit allusion to the PP’s blocking of the renewal of the CGPJ. The governing body of judges will end its five-year term in December with the expired mandate. Until then, Sánchez should be president and seek an agreement with the PP, which does not seem easy. If this does not happen beforehand – the investment deadline ends on November 27th – Spain will then be back in election campaign mode.
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