“In the PSOE there have never been prepared or agreed successions,” warns a socialist territorial leader who, like the vast majority, considers settled the attempt at a succession debate to which Pedro Sánchez himself left the door open with his five-day hiatus to reflect on whether he should continue in the position of president of the Government, given the right-wing offensive against his wife, Begoña Gómez.
But, after making the decision to continue leading the Executive, Sánchez was in charge of closing this door again. With padlock. And not only did he confirm his determination to exhaust this legislature in 2027, if nothing prevents him from doing so, but he has already run to be the PSOE candidate again to face a fourth term as president, if the polls are so they allow it. “I am looking forward to these three years of the legislature and whatever the Spaniards want with their vote,” he warned last Tuesday in Ser. “If the Spaniards and my party want me to continue being the leader of the PSOE, as long as I have the desire, conviction and ideas of transformation for my country, I am going to do it,” he announced.
And almost all the internal speculations in the PSOE regarding his succession were immediately frozen. Although there are also those who warn that “there is always something left”, but under the radar.
“There is no debate,” agree in any case in the leadership of the PSOE and in the majority of the federations. And Sánchez confirmed it again yesterday in El País, by definitively burying the succession issue: “That time has not come, and when that debate comes, it will not be me who will decide, it will be the militants who decide.”
This “exceptional episode” is now considered over in Ferraz. Although some leaders call for lessons to be drawn, given Sánchez's “hyperleadership” that was once again evident these days. “What needs to be done is more party, and with that the succession will be easier when it comes, which will be the day after Pedro leaves,” prescribes a territorial leader. “Sánchez will leave when appropriate, and then what needs to be discussed will be debated,” says another.
Some faithful defended before this crisis that Sánchez should once again be the electoral candidate when the legislature concludes. And they insist, with an argument: “he is our best asset.”
In those five days of April, however, the possibility that Sánchez was going to throw in the towel became very real, as the PSOE assumed after the initial shock. And, as already happened before the general elections of July 2023, when the majority of polls predicted the end of Sánchez's political cycle, the enormous unrest unleashed gave rise to some leaders appreciating certain "personal aspirations" in other colleagues.
“Some of them were more outspoken those days,” acknowledges a party official. “But surely it was more because of uncertainty and fear than ambition,” he alleges. And the PSOE leadership assures that, beyond the usual organic debates behind the scenes, voters and members “remain committed” to Sánchez.
The demonstration, they say, was not only the crowd that gathered at the doors of Ferraz the day the federal committee showed its “unanimous support” for the leader of the PSOE, on Saturday of last week, but also the “mass bath” which took place last Thursday in Sant Boi de Llobregat, upon rejoining the PSC's electoral campaign. “We don't have any leadership problems,” they say. And they wonder if in the Popular Party they can say the same with Alberto Núñez Feijóo
