On the 27th, at 9:30 p.m., the local executive of the Socialist Party of Alicante sent a note to the media in which it was reported that “it has been agreed to establish relations between the Party and the new Municipal Group Socialist”. What need was there to report that the party “established relations” with its municipal group?
What was intended to be made public was the approval “unanimously of the presence of party leaders in the group meetings, as well as the periodic information of the councilors and councilors in the planned local executive, as provided for in the PSOE statutes”. That is to say, that Miguel Millana, general secretary of the local group and previous municipal spokesman, excluded from the list by Ana Barceló, asserted his authority.
In addition, “a proposal to the municipal spokesperson (Ana Barceló) for the appointment of advisers in which the continuity criterion prevails” was approved. In short, the local executive made a public presentation of internal affairs of the PSPV that are of no interest to public opinion, but can obviously condition the opposition action that Ana Barceló must carry out in the term of Luis Barcala that has just begun.
All this would be less relevant, perhaps, if it were not for the fact that on July 23, 12 deputies were elected in the province of Alicante, only less than in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, the same as in the Seville constituency, in elections of uncertain result. And, as other parties have recently shown, infighting tends to discourage the electorate. Sources close to the current leadership of the PP admit that this type of conflict, as has happened in the past, “is a gift to us.”
From the outset, Miguel Millana has already publicly criticized the “mistakes” committed in the recent municipal campaign that resulted in the obtaining of eight councilors, one less than in 2019. And in an appearance in which he prevented Barceló from attending the media , because it is an act “of the party”, announced that the campaign for the generals will recover a “neighborhood by neighborhood” format that has been lost.
In the forgetfulness of the local board, perhaps not of the hypothetical socialist voters, remains the scandal carried out by the socialist group barely a year ago, when the spokesman Paco Sanguino, an independent who accused Ángel Franco of managing a municipal group in the shadows , was forced to resign after being ignored by his peers for most of his term. Millana happened to replace him.
Ana Barceló does not want, for the moment, to shake the hornet’s nest. Sources close to the ex-minister assure La Vanguardia that she is focused on her opposition work and trusts in the cohesion of her group and that good work away from internal conflicts ends up bearing fruit.
Before her they tried independents like Sanguino, strong personalities in the party like Carmen Sánchez Brufal, Etelvina Andreu, Roque Moreno, Manuel de Barros… they all agreed, gave in, negotiated with Ángel Franco, who saw them come and go and now he is taking up again activity in the front line – this week he participated in a meeting with unions – already as a candidate for senator, as he was seven times since 1982. And he had already been a deputy between 79 and 82.
In March 2014, the wiretaps that linked the former socialist senator to the businesses of businessman Enrique Ortiz seemed to end his career -he even resigned as a militant before the party leadership did it for him- as they did with that of the popular mayoress Sonia Castedo. Both were legally cleared of guilt, but Alperi’s heiress was forced to retire.
On the other hand, today, 43 years after being elected deputy, the key man in all the frustrated attempts of the local PSPV to win the elections in the city of Alicante (he has not done so since 1991, although Gabriel Echávarri managed to become mayor with the worst historical result of his party when adding with the rest of the left), he is once again a candidate for the Senate, for the eighth time, and maintains his power intact in the local party group.
He emerged unscathed from all his previous conflicts, such as the most recent one, when the provincial executive chaired by his ally Alejandro Soler proposed him as a candidate for the Senate, the national one crossed him off the list and the following day the federal one disavowed Puig’s movement and recovered for the cause.
And during all those years of internal disputes, the only socialist mayor the city has known since Ángel Luna (1991-95), Gabriel Echávarri, achieved very limited power by having only six councilors, less even than the sum of his partners of Government, Guanyar and Compromís, something that greatly conditioned his frustrated mandate, abruptly interrupted by his own mistakes and the action of a defector, Nerea Belmonte, who facilitated the return of the PP to a power that the result of the last elections allows him to maintain loosely.
