Pedro Sánchez, in the center, at the meeting of the federal leadership of the PSOE on November 27th.PSOE (EFE/PSOE)
The reactionary current that is sweeping the world and whose most recent chapters are the arrival of the far-right Javier Milei in the presidency of Argentina and the victory in the Netherlands of Geert Wilders, a representative of the European extreme right who is currently negotiating this possibility The desire to govern with the right-wing traditions, Pedro Sánchez has decided to lead the battle of ideas in Spain, in response to the PP’s alliance politics with Vox and the doors of an electoral cycle with elections in Galicia and Euskadi expected in February or March. Two events that will put the parties back in electoral mode before the European elections in June, in a calendar that does not give up and with another question on the horizon: the elections in Catalonia, scheduled for February 2025 but which could also go ahead forward .
Given this scenario, in which Spain consolidated itself on 23-J as a reference for social democracy, the PSOE will hold a political conference for its ideological rearmament in A Coruña on January 20 and 21, socialist sources told EL PAÍS the recipes of the Welfare state as a banner and also the Spanish flag, as the socialists did emphatically at the major event last weekend, in contrast to a PP, which, according to Sánchez, allowed itself to be “parasitized” on the far right. Alberto Núñez Feijóo withdrew from the ideological debate in the PP just a year ago, ruling out a party conference before the parliamentary elections – which were ultimately brought forward by half a year – and thus avoided very sensitive discussions such as the relationship with Vox. Feijóo was elected as Pablo Casado’s successor a year and a half ago in an extraordinary congress without any political presentation or charter. The 28-M left behind a flood of pacts between the PP and Santiago Abascal’s party after the regional and local elections. The result was five autonomous governments of the right with the extreme right. An alliance that expanded to 140 municipalities. A huge territorial power, but one that proved fatal to Feijóo’s ambitions in the 23rd century.
The President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE believes that the strengthening, expansion and renewal of socialist ideology in Spain is crucial to continue being the containment dam of a European right that is also waging an internal struggle between those who prioritize pacts with the Ultras, such as Manfred Weber, President of the European People’s Party, and those who, as partners of the populist and Eurosceptic parties to the right of the classical right, put the veto first, as is the case with the current led by the President of the European The People’s Party is represented by the European Commission, Ursula, who you are reading about. “Spain, like Europe, like the world, we are facing a reactionary advance of reactionary governments that are undermining the foundations of our democracy.” I believe that we must isolate the behavior of the intolerant, those who undermine the role of women in society and in political, economic and social life, who trivialize the climate emergency, who question the role of science in saving us from the climate change pandemic. The PP also has to react to all of this. Do you want to be on the side of those of us who defend these values, or do you want to be on the side of those who defend the very values that Milei defends in Argentina or Wilders in Holland? Unfortunately, after May 28, we see in the different Autonomous Communities that the PP has chosen to collaborate with these far-right parties and form reactionary governments,” Sánchez said this Thursday in an interview on La Hora de la 1 on TVE. .
A showcase for candidates
Inés Rey, mayor of A Coruña and first vice-president of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), will host a summit where the values of social democracy will be touted as the best formula to curb the ideology of the extreme right, that in certain cases was assimilated through traditional law. The political conference could serve to make some changes in the PSOE’s federal leadership, such as who will replace Pilar Alegría as the party’s spokesperson. However, the main aim is that it also serves as a showcase for the PSOE candidates in Galicia and Basque elections. The party, which is believed to have elections on February 18 in Galicia and perhaps in March in the Basque Country, did not want any surprises and already elected its two candidates in October: José Ramón Gómez Besteiro (Lugo, 55 years old) will be will be the list leader for the Xunta, and Eneko Andueza (Eibar, Gipuzkoa, 44 years old) will be the PSE-EE candidate for Lehendakari. As already happened to the PSOE in the extraordinary calls in Madrid in 2021 and in Castile and León and Andalusia in 2022, the calendar is now not favorable for the PP, which has little to gain in Euskadi and much to gain in its Galician bastion has lost. , where Alfonso Rueda faces the challenge of retaining the lead after Feijóo’s four absolute majorities.
Besteiro enjoys the full support of Sánchez and the appreciation of the entire PSOE. He is considered the victim of a right-wing strategy in court that led to him resigning as secretary general of the PSdeG in March 2016 because he was accused of ten criminal charges. In 2021, he was relieved of all investigations while he considered seeking judicial responsibility. The Lugo Provincial Court dismissed him in February of the same year and filed the Garañón lawsuit for alleged irregularities in an urban development. The provincial court accused Judge Pilar de Lara of basing the investigation on “mere suspicions that do not rise to the level of evidence.” The PSOE organizational sector believes that they have a chance of achieving the Xunta presidency as Rueda is forced to win with an absolute majority since he has no potential allies like Vox who have not established themselves in the community. Besteiro is also aiming for growth after the Galician Socialists achieved their worst result in 2016 and 2020 with 14 MPs. Feijóo won 42 seats in a 75-seat chamber where the BNG became the largest opposition party with 19 seats, marking its best result.
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The Basque Socialists, who governed together with the PNV in the last two legislative periods despite recording their worst figures and avoiding an alternative coalition of PNV and EH Bildu, are looking forward to the elections with good expectations. The PSE-EE received the most votes in the 23-J parliamentary elections, something not seen in Euskadi since 2008. She is projected to regain the 10 seats from the 2020 elections, which is her second most discrete result compared to the ceiling of 25 seats held by Patxi López in 2009, which helped him defeat Lehendakari’s candidacy with the support of the PP and UPyD Juan José Ibarretxe (PNV). “The PSOE of Euskadi will not be a necessary party, it will be an essential party to run governments and modernize the country,” Andueza said on Monday at an event in Madrid, where he made it clear that under no circumstances him with EH. Bildu rule.
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