Carlos Fernández Bielsa, provincial secretary of the PSPV in Valencia, has commissioned a team with representation from the three provinces to prepare the renovation program in the PSPV. A movement that, according to sources close to the mayor of Mislata, occurs “in view of the possibility of presenting his candidacy to lead the PSPV, something that has not occurred.”
Everything indicates that Bielsa will end up taking the step, but he cannot do so officially until the congress is called, which is expected to be held before the end of February. The moment chosen to make the announcement is not coincidental; the day the PSOE convention begins in A Coruña where all the socialist leaders will meet.
Bielsa’s move should be interpreted as a strategy to compete for the leadership of the Valencian socialist federation ahead of the PSPV congress. A congress that must decide who will lead the party after Ximo Puig’s announcement to abandon the general secretary. Furthermore, it takes place a few hours before the PSPV executive meeting that will be held on Monday to clarify the deadlines for the conclave and given the uncertainty of whether Diana Morant, Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, and Alejandro Soler, provincial president of the PSPV in Alicante , will present candidacy.
Nor are the names designated by chance. Those who make up the work team are: Bartolomé Nofuentes, Elisa Valía and Salvador Broseta (Valencia); Pep Lluís Grau and Sabina Escrig (Castelló) and Naiara Fernández Olarra and Juan Guillermo Algado (Alicante), as well as Laura Barrios from Juventudes.
In the case of the province of Valencia, where Bielsa has a greater presence, a high-ranking official from the councilor Gabriela Bravo -Broseta- and a councilor who was close to José Luis Ábalos have been chosen. Nofuentes, councilor in Quart de Poblet, was the promoter of a platform of mayors of the province who demanded more voice in the party
In the province of Castellón, Bielsa’s team admits that it is where it has the least influence (but they clarify that it is the province with the fewest militants) and the names from Alicante are less organically significant: a councilor in Mutxamel and the spokesperson for the Municipal Socialist Group in Finestrat.
Sources around Bielsa indicate that they will work to create a platform for collaboration and participation of the entire militancy so that it is an open and participatory program. And all in the face of the possibility of presenting his candidacy to lead the PSPV, something that, they reiterate, has not yet occurred.
