The PSPV has not managed to avoid the battle – despite negotiations until the last breath – and three candidates will fight to replace Ximo Puig at the head of the second federation of the PSOE. The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, starts as the great favorite given her status as Minister of Pedro Sánchez and yesterday in her presentation she made clear her closeness to the President of the Spanish Government and her “pride” to be part of his Executive: “I ask you to be brave like Pedro Sánchez was” after the defeat of 28-M, he claimed.
However, this favoritism has not intimidated the general secretaries of Valencia, Carlos Fernández Bielsa, and Alicante, Alejandro Soler, two provincial barons who have been preparing for years the day after Puig’s departure and who yesterday formalized their candidacy to lead the match. Both arrogate to be the candidates of militancy in the face of the support of the outgoing regional administration and the federal administration in Morant.
“Militancy rules and will decide, there are no favorites; or there shouldn’t be”, pointed out the mayor of Mislata, who was doing his staging surrounded by anonymous militants. Bielsa demanded an “autonomous project”. “The federal leadership of the PSOE has shown its impartiality, the militancy will decide”, added the deputy for Alicante who denied that his candidacy was presented as a challenge to Ferraz.
Soler, who has the support of a large part of those similar to José Luis Ábalos, has always been “a Sanchista with a black leg” – they express in the party -, so that until the last moment there were attempts and pressures for the his candidacy coincides with that of Minister Morant. “They were not generous”, they pointed to Soler’s environment to explain the lack of agreement.
In fact, yesterday he gave the impression in his presentation that the leader of the PSPV in Alicante was more in tune with his counterpart in Valencia than with the minister. Although he did not want to collapse the possible agreements with the former mayor of Gandia, Soler did emphasize his doubts about how a minister could be focused on the day-to-day running of the party: “Everything is possible, but being a minister It steals your time.”
In a process that is headed, unsurprisingly, for a three-way showdown, pacts can be decisive. At the moment, they all say they have good cards, so the party is venturing that the primaries are inevitable and we will have to wait for the first vote (February 25) to see what the numbers are and what kind of agreements can be reached for a second round .
