During his terms, José boosted the careers of some leaders – Carme Chacón, Eduardo Madina or Leire Pajín – in terms of succession and generational relief. Although it was finally the veteran Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba who took the reins of the PSOE, in 2012, after the fall of the government and the departure of Zapatero.
And all the succession debate was buried, or was extirpated, when Pedro Sánchez regained the leadership of the party, already in June 2017, against the entire socialist establishment. Some internal aspirations barely re-emerged in view of the forecast that Sánchez would lose the government after the advanced elections of July 2023. But, against all odds, he managed to revalidate the presidency.
His latest appointments strengthened leaders such as María Jesús Montero, Félix Bolaños and Pilar Alegría. But, despite the fact that there are always speculations, the official horizon expected until Wednesday was that Sánchez would be re-elected leader of the PSOE in a federal congress to be held after the summer, that he would exhaust the legislature and even return to lead the socialist candidacy for the general elections of 2027. “He is our best asset”, claimed his loyalists.
Nevertheless, the public letter that Sánchez published on Wednesday, in which he considered the dilemma of resigning or continuing at the head of the Spanish Government in view of the “systematic harassment operation” suffered by his wife, means that everything is a mess.
While the president remains absent from the scene until he announces his final decision on Monday, and while the impression is spreading that he will leave, a still shaken PSOE remains with woe in its heart and expectation, postponing pending decisions – the approval of the European list is delayed until Tuesday – and tries to avoid plunging into a leadership crisis with a succession debate. Precisely, to dedicate all his efforts to prevent his boss from throwing in the towel, with unsuspected consequences, and for the right to win a game in which it has been stuck since 2018, when it was kicked out of Moncloa after the motion of censorship
If he chooses to resign, the successor, at least acting, would be María Jesús Montero, whom Sánchez appointed first vice-president of the Spanish Government and deputy general secretary of the PSOE. But Montero is the first who, in these moments of uncertainty, avoids the succession debate, waiting for Sánchez to issue his “verdict” on Monday. All the movements are focused, for now, on the president not leaving.
“I don’t want to make any proposals at this moment, because I am absolutely focused on how, together, we are able to help the president so that he has strength and enough courage to continue,” insisted Montero to La Sexta yesterday. “I am focused only and exclusively on this”, she insisted.
“I want and have concentrated all my forces so that when he communicates his decision on Monday, it will be to convey that he has the strength to continue and, therefore, that the project continues forward”, concluded Montero. Leaders such as Félix Bolaños and Patxi López insisted yesterday in the same sense of trying to contain a succession debate, which also overshadows public reflection on the quality of democracy.
“We are not in any other scenario than that the president, after this process of personal reflection, continues his work”, Bolaños alleged. “The scenario is that we can, from Monday, continue to govern normally and with the president at the helm”, he said.
“We will not hesitate, because we are doing everything possible so that Pedro Sánchez remains at the front and continues to be the president of the Spanish Government”, said Patxi López.
And while Sánchez remains locked up in Moncloa, the PSOE’s federal committee, militancy and supporters will show their “unconditional support” today. They will shout like this so that he does not leave and face, once again, the right-wing offensive. The management mobilizes, the federations hire buses, and key figures are also expected to go to the rally called at the gates of Ferraz. “Pedro, don’t give up”, they all claim.
