The forecast that today the federal committee of the PSOE will proceed peacefully, to ratify all the candidacies for Congress and the Senate in the 23-J elections, was seriously compromised this Friday afternoon. The last-minute changes that the federal committee of Ferraz lists wanted to introduce in some headlines led several socialist territorial leaders, critical or related to Pedro Sánchez, to sound the alarm, revolt and set foot on the wall. "We are not going to pass through here," they warned.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, very distant from Sánchez and who is the only socialist regional president who revalidated his absolute majority on May 28, was one of them. And in the end he got away with it.
This socialist federation approved that Toledo's candidacy for Congress be headed by its number two and organization secretary, Sergio Gutiérrez. But Ferraz wanted to relegate him to second position -which is also presumed to be a starting position-, so that the list would be led by the still mayor of Toledo, Milagros Tolón, who despite winning the 28-M elections will now be displaced by a majority of the PP and Vox. Tolón, on the other hand, is a leader very close to Sánchez and, in fact, she is the president of the federal committee of the PSOE.
The federation that Page leads immediately conveyed its absolute discomfort: "Ferraz is changing the lists through impositions and, from what many of us interpret, as personal whims," they denounced. And they threatened that today's federal committee "is not going to be as peaceful as it should be." Page was very willing to "defend the interests" of the federation of him in the appointment. The threat of a storm was clear. And justified, they claimed: "The lists were unanimously approved by the provincial committee, with more than 300 attendees from the province of Toledo representing 90% of the local groups."
Faced with the pulse raised by Page, Ferraz ended up correcting his decision. Finally, Sergio Gutiérrez will be number one for Toledo in Congress and Milagros Tolón, number two. "I appreciate the cordial dialogue with the federal leadership of the PSOE to clarify an error in the head of the list of the candidacy for Toledo," Page himself ironized later.
But other Socialist federations also showed notable irritation at the changes imposed by Ferraz. The other regional president of the PSOE who is most critical of Sánchez is the Aragonese Javier Lambán. Unlike Page, however, Lambán will be evicted from the regional presidency as a result of 28-M. But in his case, in addition, he rained on wet.
Lambán already wanted to record this week his opposition to the decision of Pedro Sánchez to place the Minister of Education and spokesperson for the Ferraz executive, Pilar Alegría, at the head of the electoral list for the Congress for Zaragoza, despite the fact that in this federation the chosen was Oscar Galeano. Lambán, however, gave his arm to twist and assumed the imposition of Alegría, which forced Galeano to be placed as number two on the Zaragoza table.
But the federal commission of lists also altered this provision this Friday, to place Susana Sumelzo as number two of the candidacy, another leader who was very close to Sánchez when she was placed in the "no is no" to the investiture of Mariano Rajoy and he was eventually ousted by the PSOE establishment. Despite the discomfort expressed, in this case Ferraz maintained her decision and Sumelzo will accompany Alegría as an electoral ticket for Zaragoza.
Another federation affected by the changes imposed by Ferraz was that of Castilla y León, led by Luis Tudanca, who, on the other hand, is very close to Pedro Sánchez, as is the until now mayor of Valladolid, Óscar Puente. In this case, Ferraz imposed his electoral action secretary, Javier Izquierdo, as number one on the list for the Senate for Valladolid, instead of Sara Galván. And also to Manuel Arribas – who in this territory is linked to the scandal of the Tito Berni case – for the Congress for Ávila, instead of the proposal for the territory, which was Yolanda Vázquez.
Ferraz also corrected the list proposed by Ximo Puig, who in turn had modified the proposals of the provincial leaders of Valencia and Alicante, Carlos Fernández Bielsa and Alejandro Soler. Puig, who will not revalidate the presidency of the Valencian Community either, nominated Alfred Boix and Antonia Moreno as number one for the Senate for Valencia and Alicante, but Ferraz imposed Juan Antonio Sagredo and Ana Martínez Zaragoza.
The PSOE federal committee plans to definitively approve all the candidacies today, in an appointment that will not be as placid as presumed and that will not approve the electoral program either, as initially planned, since it will delegate it to the Ferraz executive.
