The President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, during an event in Valencia this week Álvaro García
Invited or not, the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, will be very present in the long campaign for the municipal and regional elections on the last Sunday in May. Its beginning can be considered inaugurated with the short Christmas break. The vast majority of regional leaders and the mayors of the main cities with a socialist councilor want Sánchez on their territory. It’s not about anything personal, nor about sympathies, although in many cases they are there, but to highlight the action taken by the central government in their communities: projects accomplished, others underway and a good number in the Election Pledges chapter. Sánchez will not hide, but will go public.
Saturday’s socialist act at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, with Pedro Sánchez as the protagonist, had a particular importance, as recognized by the interlocutors consulted. It will not differ from others in that until the elections of 28 the PSOE granted the Secretary General the electoral campaign for the Valencian Community. The same that the PP grants him. In the city of Valencia, the socialist communal world gathered from all over Spain with aspirants to the municipal baton and some who had already reached it four years ago or on earlier occasions. “I’m going to miss two great ministers,” Sánchez pointed out, glancing at the center of the room where the heads of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and Health, Carolina Darias, each candidate for mayor, sat. from Madrid and Las Palmas. The constant applause among the candidates and from them on Sánchez showed the unity in this family in times of trouble and the desire to win.
The focus was on the host, the President of the Valencian Community, Ximo Puig, who combined the memory of the deeds of his mandate – with a coalition government that has shown remarkable stability despite many vicissitudes – with the recognition of some of the works that have hung dependent on the central government and the claim of other dependents. Puig is not one of the first territorial leaders to be with Sánchez in the primaries against Susana Díaz; not even when he won, but his pragmatism in the interests of his community has cemented a mutual respect and collaborative relationship with Sánchez. Both will work together to ensure that the PSPV can govern again with Puig at the head of a coalition cabinet.
The strategists of the federal election campaign , headed by Deputy Secretary General María Jesús Montero and Commander of the Machinery by Secretary General Santos Cerdán , will be able to move comfortably in almost all federations . Cooperation will be intense in most cases, with any support from the federal leadership to the regional and local being considered good and necessary.
Despite this, the idiosyncrasies and organic and territorial specificities of each of them are respected to the maximum. No one knows how to articulate their campaigns like the Presidents of the Balearics, Francina Armengol, and of Navarre, María Chivite. Both have Pedro Sánchez; as well as the President of La Rioja, Concha Andreu, and the head of the Canarian Government, Ángel Víctor Torres. The balanced nature of the actions of the central government in all Autonomous Communities allows the president “not to hide”, say socialist interlocutors. And it will be present in all territories, knowing that in each one of them there will be or can be groups that reject them because of specific conflicts or because of the political and ideological rejection so ingrained in very active sectors of the United States , boo or yell at Spanish correctly.
In fact, the leaders of the PP reinvent themselves in claiming that the governor “can’t take to the streets”. In doing so, they rely on the PSOE and the security of La Moncloa, but that’s not strange, nor will it stop Sánchez from moving around the country. The socialist leader will be present in Extremadura, where Guillermo Fernández Vara governs and where the central government’s footprint wants to be exhibited.
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In the logic of the PSOE to respect the autonomy of its associations in organizing the campaigns, no doubt in those that have the community government or the city council, like Abel Caballero, in Vigo; in A Coruña, Inés Rey; Óscar Puente in Valladolid or Antonio Muñoz Martínez in Seville decide which images will be advertised. The strength of the PSOE brand will be taken into account, but in some places the image of the regional president will prevail.
Despite the gale force winds of the opposition’s political discourse, the ruling socialist candidates reiterate that their best guarantee is their management, with unprecedented difficulties stemming from the pandemic and the energy and supply crises stemming from the war in Ukraine. Also those of the central government, although this is also claimed by the leaders of their PP. This assessment applies equally to the regional presidents who are most distant and critical of Pedro Sánchez, such as Emiliano García-Page from Castile-La Mancha and Javier Lambán from Aragon. In these communities, there are no major complaints about the treatment of the central executive.
Sánchez’s risky decisions to favor the Catalan pro-independence movement, in his belief that they will promote “harmony” and that they will no longer commit crimes, unsettle not only Page and Lambán; also to the other candidates, in government and in opposition, as in the case of Juan Lobato from Madrid. If the institutional struggle with the conservative sector of the judiciary and the Constitutional Court continues over time, and the government responds to the deadlock with legislative shortcuts, the managerial realities that regional and local candidates cling to as cover letters may shatter.
Today, Sánchez and most barons trust their works and the judgment of broad sections of society. According to various territorial interlocutors, the cohesion of the PSOE will be strengthened when the PP waves proclamations about Spain’s irreversible path towards dictatorship.
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