Despite the unexpected joy offered by the investiture of Jaume Collboni as mayor of Barcelona, ??the PSOE yesterday certified the “black Saturday for Spanish democracy” that it predicted, after the alliance between the PP and the ultra-right of Vox was consumed, according to its figures, in 187 municipalities throughout Spain, to impose its “ultraconservative” policies on more than 8.2 million citizens. From Valencia to Seville, from Zaragoza to Palma, or from Alicante to Cáceres, among many other capitals, right-wing majorities colored the map of municipal Spain blue.
However, what the socialists find even more poignant, as Ferraz municipal policy secretary Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis pointed out, is that the PSOE won the local elections on May 28 in 52 of those 187 municipalities where now the PP will govern thanks to the support of Vox.
The spokeswoman for the Government and Minister of Territorial Policy, the socialist Isabel Rodríguez -who yesterday attended the investiture of former minister Carolina Darias as mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria-, denounced the “pacts of shame” between the PP and Vox in numerous town halls throughout Spain.
These half a hundred localities where the PSOE was the most voted list, but where the formation of Alberto Núñez Feijóo will govern with that of Santiago Abascal, has its peak in some large cities such as Valladolid (with 295,639 inhabitants), Elx (235,580 ), Alcalá de Henares (196,888) and Burgos (173,483). But also in many other medium-sized municipalities, with more than 30,000 inhabitants, such as Mijas, Guadalajara, Torrent, Toledo, Talavera de la Reina, Molina de Segura, Arrefice, Calvià, Tomelloso, Cieza, Níjar or Xirivella. And even in some tiny municipalities like Chercos, in Almeria, with 301 inhabitants, or Villademor de la Vega, in León, with just 290 souls.
Also, the socialists point out, in Maracena, the Granada town that acquired a sad reputation in the 28-M campaign for the open investigation, and later archived, against the ex-mayor and then organizational secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, Noel López , for the kidnapping of Councilor Vanessa Romero. Julio Pérez, of the PP, took possession of this mayor’s office yesterday after his government agreement, among other formations, with Vox.
A territory where the socialist drama is expressed with intensity is Andalusia, since this federation was always the backbone of the PSOE and the main focus of territorial power.
Whipped by the scandal of the fraudulent EROs, the first major moral and electoral blow that the PSOE received in Andalusia was recorded in the regional elections of December 2018, which led to it losing the government of the Junta for the first time in a democracy. Four years later, in June 2022, the coup de grace arrived, when the popular Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla already added an absolute majority and the Socialists signed their worst record. And the peak of the defeat took place in the municipal elections of 28-M, when the PSOE also lost the jewel in the crown of its municipal power, Seville. And not only that: the PP once again governs the eight Andalusian capitals. All: Seville, Huelva, Granada and Jaén, lost by the socialists, in addition to Málaga, Córdoba, Cádiz and Almeria.
The Sevillian town of Dos Hermanas is today the main Andalusian municipality in the hands of the PSOE. After almost forty years in office and ten consecutive absolute majorities, the veteran Francisco Toscano gave up the mayoralty last year to Francisco Rodríguez, who on 28-M maintained the PSOE’s absolute majority and even went increase your votes.
And precisely in Dos Hermanas, Pedro Sánchez will start his campaign for the 23-J on Sunday, with the minister and deputy general secretary of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero. Ferraz intends to turn to the “epic” that helped build the political profile of the socialist leader, to try to get back on track for the final date with the polls. Dos Hermanas was where Sánchez announced his candidacy for the PSOE primaries in January 2017 after being defenestrated as general secretary in the federal committee on October 1, 2016. “It all started there”, they remember his loyalists, since Sánchez managed to win that fight against Susana Díaz and regained the leadership of the PSOE, to reach Moncloa after winning the motion of no confidence that ousted Mariano Rajoy in 2018.
Some PSOE voices hold Pedro Sánchez responsible for the enormous loss of municipal power suffered. “The righteous have paid for sinners”, lamented the Castilla-Mancheque Emiliano García-Page, the only socialist regional president left with an absolute majority after the 28-M. And Sánchez himself assumed defeat in the first person, after warning the “so undeserved and so unjust punishment” suffered by many socialist mayors.
Now, the leadership of the PSOE trusts that the government alliances between the PP and Vox in so many town halls, and for the moment also in the Valencian Community, will cause a “reaction” from the progressive electorate that on 23-J will stop “the wave ultra-conservative that wants to take over the institutions and make Spain go backwards”.
