Uncertainty has settled among the ranks of the PSPV. In less than three months, the majority of leaders who have led the federation for twelve years, with important positions in the Generalitat Valenciana, have taken a step back from organic life or have abandoned their work in Valencian politics. Not only Ximo Puig, appointed Spanish ambassador to the OECD. Also key pieces of his political project such as Arcadi España or Rebeca Torró, both now Secretaries of State, and even members of his closest team such as Pere Rostoll, now in the Ministry of Óscar Puente, serve as examples. Now it will be Diana Morant who will assemble her own team, and all kinds of speculations are being generated on this matter, and not a little nerves.

The departure of Ximo Puig represents a change of cycle that also coincides with a complex situation of the PSOE federations in Spain. It could be seen this weekend in Galicia, where the PSdeG sank in the face of the advance of the BNG and the victory of the PP. The same thing happened before in Madrid, where the PSOE is installed in inanity, or Andalusia, former fiefdom of a socialist federation that is trying to rediscover its identity. The party model imposed by Pedro Sánchez, presidential and vertical, seems to be playing against the strength of the socialist federations. PSPV sources emphasize that “Sánchez does not consider the role of the peripheries.” And they add that we will have to be attentive to the European elections: “It could be a serious moment, a turning point for Sánchez.”

In a Valencian key, the replacement of Ximo Puig once again opens the definition of what the PSPV wants to be in the coming years. A task that will fall to Diana Morant, whom many of those consulted see more as an opportunity than as a problem. They agree, however, on the need for him to build a project that does not abandon the “Valencianist” path, that marks distances with Sánchez (“Sánchez does not benefit us,” they repeat) and that he must take advantage of his youth “to connect with generations that “They want to vote for socialism, they see us as an aging party, and they prefer alternatives like the BNG.” One of the keys will be to observe which executive Diana Morant chooses at the extraordinary congress in March. If she opts for real change or maintains references that anchor the party in the past.

In this story, the best news is that Ximo Puig’s replacement has not been traumatic, although he was directly mentored by Ferraz. The forms were not the best for a federation that for years has wanted to emphasize its “autonomy.” In previous periods, these cycle changes were celebrated with fearsome organic battles that weakened the party’s options to recover its hegemony, even in the face of other forces such as Compromís and Podemos that disputed it. Another thing is whether this “forced peace” will last, since the PSPV continues to be segmented between political families, among others those led by Carlos Ferández Bielsa and Alejandro Soler, the same ones who gave up running as a candidate against Morant.

This change in cycle will also be conditioned by the management of the right at the head of the institutions, especially the PP, which aspires to reach the absolute majority again in 2027 and can achieve it. Poor organic management and a weak narrative before public opinion can greatly complicate the PSPV’s ability to regain muscle ahead of that date. A situation that will also be contaminated by the evolution of Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE in the coming months. Spanish socialism is in the greatest situation of territorial weakness in democracy. And it is precisely “Mediterranean” socialism – the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and the Valencian Community – that still maintains an electoral market that has disappeared in other geographies.

One of the best equipped heads of Valencian socialism says that the PSPV could be the last piece that determines the recovery or the collapse of the PSOE in Spain, and perhaps he is right. With Ximo Puig, the federation had, since 2015, an upward curve, breaking the decline that began in 1995. The former leader of Valencian socialism has retired with a positive balance compared to what his predecessors achieved after the period of Joan Lerma. A new change of cycle is now beginning, and the first step will be to overcome the uncertainty of the party’s cadres.