This text belongs to ‘Político’, the newsletter that Lola García sends every Thursday to the readers of La Vanguardia. If you want to receive it in your mailbox, sign up here.
After thinking carefully about it, it seems that Pedro Sánchez is determined to place his third vice president, Teresa Ribera, as a candidate for the European elections, replacing Josep Borrell. A clear indicator that times are different.
Borrell returned to head the PSOE’s European list in 2019, twelve years after holding that position and later holding the presidency of the European Parliament. Sánchez chose Borrell for two fundamental reasons: his Europeanism and his Catalan origin. It was 2019 and the independence process was still a relevant issue in the political debates in Brussels.
Instead, the discussion now runs between two visions of Europe. It pivots around whether to curb environmental demands more or less forcefully so as not to cause greater discomfort in economically affected sectors. And also around a more or less permeable closure of borders against immigration. All of this in a context of a possible shift towards the right in the European Parliament.
Sánchez could become one of the few relevant EU leaders located on the left of the political spectrum. Ribera’s candidacy expresses a clear European commitment, since she is a recognized leader in Europe for her previous career, but above all it is a commitment to the fight against climate change and the energy transition that will serve the PSOE to confront its model with the of the PP. Precisely, yesterday a report from the Climate Impact Research Institute of Potsdam (Germany) was released that warns that the Spanish economy will be one of the most affected by climate change. Specifically, it will lose 17.8% of per capita income in 2049 for this reason.
If, as it seems, this bet is confirmed, there will be a gap in the Government. Following the departure of Pablo Iglesias, Sánchez boasted of feminism with four vice presidents in this order of relevance within the executive’s organizational chart: Carmen Calvo, Nadia Calviño, Yolanda Díaz and Teresa Ribera. Of that cast, only the leader of Sumar could now remain.
Despite the government remodeling, Sánchez has tried to keep the vice presidencies in the hands of women, but above all he tries to limit the importance of his partner. At the beginning, with Unidas Podemos it was a position of four. With Sumar he is one of three. The question that arises now is whether he will distribute the second rank of the government only between the socialist María Jesús Montero and the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz. It would mean giving more importance to both. And Montero is also already deputy secretary of the PSOE. If she decides to incorporate someone else to continue with the same balance, one thing is clear: there would be no need to do succession readings on the chosen person.
Díaz once maintained tense relations with Calvo and Calviño, while his main allies within the executive were the ministers José Luis Ábalos and María Jesús Montero. However, with the current vice president of the Treasury there has been a certain distancing.
The next question is when Sánchez will tackle this small remodeling. He could do it with data in hand. The result of the fight with the PP in the European elections on June 9 and also that of the Catalan elections will provide the political map with which to work for some time, since no elections are planned in the near future (unless the elections are repeated). of the Parliament).
