“Who does not risk, does not fish”, they argue in Moncloa. On Monday morning, after the socialist electoral fiasco during the black night of 28-M, Pedro Sánchez resorted to his usual political strategy for when things get worse: betting everything on one last card. One last play, all or nothing. One last shot of luck at roulette. “All in, all in red”. The silver bullet.
A strategy that has sometimes worked for him, such as when he was resurrected in 2017 after being defenestered by the PSOE or when in 2018 he presented a motion of censure against Mariano Rajoy who made him Prime Minister, but who at other times has failed, as happened with the electoral repeat of 2019. Luck is thrown again, with the early general elections of July 23, which yesterday afternoon called an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers after dissolving the Courts. The legislature is over.
On 28-M he bent the pulse of Sánchez, who always bet to exhaust his mandate until his last breath, in December, after crowning him with the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, which begins in July 1. But the message of the polls on Sunday was irrevocable, and almost all of the territorial power of the PSOE was lost. Sánchez could choose between prolonging six months of agony, until the generals in December, or kick the board and let all the pieces fly through the air. “Win or die, there are no other alternatives”, corroborated his faithful. And elections
As early as Monday morning, once Ferraz confirmed the loss of most of the PSOE regional presidencies – Valencian Community, Aragon, Extremadura, Balearic Islands, La Rioja, possibly the Canaries and also the vice-presidency of Cantabria–, and mayorships like those of Seville, Granada, Huelva, Palma de Mallorca, Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valladolid, Gijón or Castelló, Sánchez summoned his hard core to the Moncloa to decide the electoral advance.
Yesterday morning, Sánchez did not have the usual Monday morning meeting. In his place, he communicated to Felipe VI the dissolution of the Courts and then appeared in Moncloa to announce the call to the polls. Taking full responsibility for the socialist defeat. “As President of the Central Government and as Secretary General of the PSOE, I personally assume the results and I believe it is necessary to give an answer and submit our democratic mandate to the will of the people”, he stated.
He then met in Ferraz with the PSOE federal executive to explain his decision. “It is the best time to mobilize the progressive vote”, they all agreed. “We must take advantage of the scare as a reaction to group the left”, they decided. The time is now, they say, because they see the sum of the Popular Party and the extreme right of Vox still “very far” from an absolute majority, while they think that Alberto Núñez Feijóo has no possibility or ability to agree with any other group in the parliamentary arch
“It’s a very risky decision”, they all assume in Moncloa and Ferraz. “But brave, audacious, daring and, above all, intelligent”, they emphasize. “The goal is to stop the right and the ultra-right, now we’re going to all of them”, they say. It is not the result of an accident, they warn, but a “very calculated” strategic decision.
“For the PP and Vox to add up to an absolute majority is much more complicated than it seems”, they allege. “We are three points away”, they emphasize. And in fact they remember that, in the overall calculation of the municipal elections, the PP (31% of the votes) barely won by three points over the PSOE (28%). This percentage difference, the socialist strategists point out, can be reversed if they achieve “a hypermobilization of the left”. Once again, with the threat of a PP majority and the Vox ultra-right.
Sánchez, therefore, will continue his almost uninterrupted electoral campaign with “a callous appeal to the useful vote”, to concentrate the vote of the left. The leader of the PSOE will thus appeal directly to the progressive voter to slow down the right. “Sánchez is the only one who can stop the right and the ultra-right”, they conclude.
