The PSOE will hold its Municipal Conference this weekend in Valencia and Pedro Sánchez will preside over the closing ceremony of this event on Sunday together with Ximo Puig and the candidate for mayor of Valencia, Sandra Gómez. It will be the starting signal for the socialist run-up to the 28M municipal and regional elections. On May 5, the President of the Government will hold an event in Alicante and, days later, in Castellón.
Pedro Sánchez is going to work hard in the Valencian Community, the most important autonomy chaired by a socialist, with the support of CompromÃs and Unides Podem. The PSOE has assumed the electoral, and also symbolic, importance of maintaining power in the Generalitat Valenciana and city councils such as those of Valencia, Castellón or Elx in the face of the real threat that the PP and Vox can recover the institutions that the left won to the right in 2015. In the Valencian socialist federation, it is also appreciated that if the PSOE loses the Valencian Community it will see its territorial power greatly weakened – the PP already governs Andalusia, Madrid, Galicia and Castilla-León – and it will be very difficult for Sánchez to successfully reach the next generals.
The intense presence of Pedro Sánchez does not displease the PSPV now. It wasn’t like that a few weeks ago. Federation sources assess that Ximo Puig continues to have a better image among Valencian voters than the President of the Government, and they maintain the thesis that a campaign in a national key can harm them. But they also point out that the presence of Sánchez can help mobilize a part of the socialist voter closer to the PSOE than to the PSPV, “especially since Vox’s unsuccessful motion of censure,” as they point out. One piece of information: these sources add that the relationship between Sánchez and Puig has intensified.
The PSPV has designed a campaign focused on the figure of the president and on defending the management carried out during these two legislatures together with his government partners. Ximo Puig is committed to a calm campaign, he will avoid the provocations of the right-wing and will focus his promises on strengthening public services, housing policies and investments by large companies such as Volkswagen in Sagunt. His biggest concern is that on his left, CompromÃs and, especially, Unides Podem will reach 28M with force. All the polls point to the fact that the Socialists will once again need their partners to reissue a left-wing government, which is called a III Botà nic here.
Unlike in 2019, the Valencian regional and municipal elections will be held together. The Socialists, who govern in most cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, trust that the leadership of their mayors will help Ximo Puig to overcome the results of the previous elections. The greatest success would be to stay ahead of the PP in votes, deputies and councilors given the possibility that the collapse of Ciudadanos places Feijóo’s party as the first political force in the Valencian Community. And it is these mayors and mayors who, according to PSPV sources, value the presence of Pedro Sánchez the most to reinforce their options of maintaining the mayoralty or supporting their candidates, as is the case of Sandra Gómez in Valencia, a city where the victory of the left or the right can be decided by a handful of votes, as in 2019.
