“Fear? “None!” warn high levels of the Government and the leadership of the PSOE. The unexpected jump of former minister José Luis Ábalos to the mixed group in Congress caused “heartbreak and sadness” among the socialists and culminated an unusual challenge that questioned the authority of Pedro Sánchez in his own ranks, armored since he regained the leadership of the Congress in 2017. party on the shoulders of the militancy, and even more so since he became president of the government in 2018.
The departure of Ábalos, who was a key figure for Sánchez to regain control of the PSOE and later reach Moncloa, implies more turbulence for the Government and for Ferraz. In an already very complicated moment, after the electoral collapse in Galicia that once again shows the loss of territorial and institutional power of the socialists, and while the course of the legislature is still pending whether or not the Amnesty law is unblocked, which in turn, it keeps the first general budgets of the mandate in the air.
But the Government and the leadership of the PSOE try to minimize the impact of Ábalos’s march, to the same extent that the right tries to amplify it to collect some big game and destabilize Sánchez. In the Executive they claim to have no fear of an Ábalos now outside the discipline of the party, because they insist that they have nothing to hide, and they rule out a threat to the legislature, because the former minister himself guaranteed them that he will maintain his vote for the PSOE in all initiatives.
The round of interviews that Ábalos is granting does not worry them either: “He is defending himself,” they assume. And no one in the Government and the leadership of the PSOE questions how they acted, demanding that he hand over his seat to assume political responsibilities for the Koldo case, although he is not being investigated for this scandal. There is also unanimity that his decision to go to the mixed group is a mistake. “He is making a mistake in legitimate defense,” they concede. Although everyone is still pending the course of the judicial investigations, for now calm remains. “There is no judicial news, there is no political news,” Ferraz highlights.
And Moncloa activated its strategy to confront the right-wing offensive in the face of this crisis. “It’s not him and you anymore,” they claim. They thus seek to differentiate the ways of confronting corruption. “The PSOE acts quickly, forcefully and transparently, and the PP covers up and hides.” This is what Sánchez highlighted yesterday: “This Government cuts things short, others cut off the heads of those who denounce corruption.”
The possible repercussions of the Koldo case were also widely debated among PSOE allies. Both agree that Ábalos’s decision to snub his party to take refuge in the mixed group – and thus cling to his seat – “weakens” Sánchez. But they consider it impossible that, as the PP claims, “this is going to bring him down.”
And far from taking advantage of the situation to deepen the wound or settle pending accounts, the coalition partners and those of the investiture choose to shelter Sánchez from the harsh criticism launched by the opposition, emphasizing that their “trust” in him remains “intact.”
A loyalty that, in the case of the Basque and Catalan nationalist formations, obeys the shared interest to carry out an Amnesty law that, this time, “advances without setbacks.”
The criticisms, in fact, are minimal. “It is clear that the PSOE negotiated poorly with Ábalos and this situation should not have reached,” they point out, separately, in Sumar and in EH Bildu. But “the objectives of the legislature will prevail and this issue will not derail the legislature.”
Sánchez’s allies also insist on putting the focus on Ábalos: “Sánchez has cut ties and has asked him for his deputy’s certificate. He could have done better, but he can’t do more. It is Ábalos who must assume political responsibility for him. We must be implacable in the face of corruption and demonstrate it to the citizens,” they insist from the space led by Yolanda Díaz.
The PNV expresses itself along the same lines, although sources from the nationalist formation emphasize the need for both the PSOE and the Government to give “explanations beyond those that are being known through the media.”
