I imagine you know the sweet melody that the sharpeners play when they navigate the streets offering their services; people of trade, capable of leaving knives, razors or forks in perfect condition to execute cuts, whether on fabrics, vegetables or meats. I do not know if these professionals have been called in the regional or local headquarters of the PSPV given the evidence that quite a few leaders and militants have opened their knives (in a metaphorical sense) willing to fight against the hypothesis that a new organic struggle is coming (a more) with two objectives: to end the leadership of Ximo Puig and to establish a new government in Valencian socialism in the foreseeable difficult journey through the desert that has just begun. One fact: there is still a year left until the federation congress.
There are those who already consider the general secretary amortized. They argue that not having achieved a place in the Council of Ministers is proof that, they add, demonstrates the end of a stage that was confirmed in the 28-M elections. From then on, there are many who, driven by fratricidal passion, wish to settle accounts by accelerating deadlines and seeking complicity with the many tribes that make up the always sensitive Valencian federation. A federation, by the way, whose history is written with abundant political corpses and with many internal wars that served no purpose. But it is already known that the defeats, and the coldness of the opposition, encourage, a lot, to guarantee survival when armchairs, seats, council offices and salaries are scarce.
Ximo Puig has his own family of loyalties, which some describe as a "hegemonic minority." From there, the range of "sensitivities" is wide, and all confront each other only and exclusively for power, because at the moment there is no talk of strategy, positioning, discourse or ideology. The man who has concentrated the greatest political capital of the PSPV is now questioned, and it is only the beginning. Knowing this party, it will not be strange that in the near future we will attend dinners, conclaves, gatherings and other events in which both parties will want to exhibit organic muscle. And do not think that this is a generational problem, because among the pre-candidates to fight there are all ages, including some very close to Ximo Puig himself.
The still general secretary should take care of the staging to avoid encouraging rebellion. His failure to appear in the Valencian Parliament, where he is a regional deputy, does not help to reinforce his notoriety in the local institutional space, which is the one he should lead. The parliamentary group is, for the moment, mostly loyal; But loyalties are fragile when it is sensed that the leader is more attentive to other realities, let's say we are talking about the Senate. The "empty seat syndrome" could end up being a hard handicap for the former Valencian president at a time when each of his movements are audited, with a view to criticism, by many.
For now, and waiting for the new white hope of the PSPV to emerge, Ximo Puig is the most significant piece of Valencian socialism. But there are those who already bring names to the stage hoping to testify their loyalty, from Diana Morant, Alejandro Soler, Carlos Fernández Bielsa or even Pilar Bernabé; when it is already known that the first to go out on the battlefield are usually the first to fall. In some cases, it is announced, they are profiles endorsed by Pedro Sánchez himself, the same one who denied the Valencian socialist baron a seat at the round table.
Knowing the history of this federation, which some of us have followed for almost 35 years, it seems reasonable to predict that, if the organic crisis accelerates, the PSPV may, as they say now, "balkanize." Sometimes, prudence is usually a good advisor to overcome difficult times, as is now the case with the Valencian socialists. But there are those who always carried the knife tight to their belt and now are eager to open it and use it; They are convinced that their time has come. And Ximo Puig knows it.
