Sánchez tries to reinforce the PSOE before the electoral cycle after the departure of Lastra

After giving a push to the Government and the legislature, in the debate on the state of the nation, Pedro Sánchez now wants to give a new electoral boost to the PSOE, aligned with Moncloa, to try to block the way on all fronts to the change of political cycle in Spain led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
18 July 2022 Monday 16:51
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Sánchez tries to reinforce the PSOE before the electoral cycle after the departure of Lastra

After giving a push to the Government and the legislature, in the debate on the state of the nation, Pedro Sánchez now wants to give a new electoral boost to the PSOE, aligned with Moncloa, to try to block the way on all fronts to the change of political cycle in Spain led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. In this strategy, the until now deputy general secretary of the PSOE, Adriana Lastra, yesterday announced her departure from the scene.

After the socialist electoral debacle of May 2021 in Madrid, Sánchez carried out a profound remodeling of the PSOE government and leadership two months later, which led to the departure of heavyweights such as Carmen Calvo or José Luis Ábalos, the rise of Félix Bolaños, and the incorporation of Óscar López, Antonio Hernando or Francesc Vallès to Moncloa.

The socialist electoral bump in Andalusia on 19-J, however, unleashed new organic tensions in the PSOE, and the urgent demand to rearm the party before the municipal and regional elections in May next year, as a prelude to the general elections in December 2023, which caused the expectation of new relays in the Ferraz dome.

But Sánchez first chose to go full throttle, and successfully linked the holding of the NATO summit in Madrid and the debate on the state of the nation, after which he was greatly strengthened.

After these appointments, and before the summer break, Sánchez faces a strategic and electoral boost from the PSOE, which could be precipitated after Lastra announced his resignation yesterday, alleging personal issues.

“In recent months there have been important changes in my personal life that require me to be calm and rest and that, in the last two weeks, have forced me to take a leave of absence that will last for some time,” explained Lastra, facing a risky pregnancy. "Given the difficulty of combining the demands of rest and care, essential in my current situation, with the intensity required by the leadership of the party, I have submitted my resignation," he announced. And he added that he transferred his decision to Sánchez "days ago."

The announcement caused an earthquake in the PSOE. On the one hand, because Lastra justified his resignation due to a risky pregnancy, which caused discomfort even in socialist sectors. "Being a mother can never be a reason for resignation," criticized some socialist leaders, who denounced the disservice that Lastra was doing with her justification for the feminist cause and women's equality. But the right wing took advantage of the occasion, and both Cuca Gamarra (PP) and Macarena Olona (Vox) reproached her for her alleged reason for resigning from her. "There should always be the possibility of not resigning, of not resigning, whatever the responsibility of the position held, this is not the path of equality," criticized Gamarra. All of which provoked as a reaction a wave of solidarity in the PSOE with Lastra, defending her personal decision and without attributing it to reasons of internal political struggle.

Other socialist leaders, however, warn of the friction that Lastra had in recent months with Ferraz's organization secretary, Santos Cerdán, or with Héctor Gómez, who last September replaced her as socialist spokesman in Congress.

Aligning the leadership of the PSOE with Moncloa, also from the point of view of communication, would now be essential requirements for the strategy with which Sánchez seeks to remount the socialist flight before the new electoral cycle.

But how and when he will do it is something that only Sánchez himself knows. “No one knows anything”, agree many in the PSOE.