"The whole of the PSOE is behind Pedro Sánchez for the investiture", agree the management of Ferraz and the socialist parliamentary group, but also different territorial leaders and federations and socialist groups, in the face of the admonitions of Felipe González and Alfonso Guerra against the amnesty demanded by Catalan independence in order to invest the leader of the PSOE as president. "There is no noise or tension in the PSOE, the party is a block", they conclude.
The "absolute confidence" in the negotiations that Sánchez will pilot for his investiture, when Alberto Núñez Feijóo's fails, is imposed on the organization and the majority of the federations and their militancy, they say. On the other hand, many in the PSOE warn that the repeated attacks by González and Guerra, which they see as "sticks in the wheels" for Sánchez's claims, are already turning against him.
"They have less and less preaching at the grassroots", emphasizes an Andalusian leader about González and Guerra. "Their opinions are needed less and less in the party", agrees a Valencian leader. "Unfortunately for them, they have been placed outside the affection of socialist militancy, with the emotional bankruptcy that this has meant for many", acknowledges a Basque leader in turn. Óscar Puente, former mayor of Valladolid and now a member of Congress, emphasized this openly yesterday: "It's been a long time since they stopped being a progressive benchmark to become what they are today", he lamented.
José Montilla, former president of the Generalitat and ex-leader of the Catalan Socialists, also regretted that González is back on the stage to warn Sánchez that he is on the wrong path and that the amnesty is unconstitutional - a position that Guerra joined yesterday forcefully –, after having been absent from the Socialists' campaigns for the recent municipal, regional and general elections. "I would have liked to see him in the campaign", said Montilla about González. "He is free to express his opinion, but it is curious that he does so at certain times and not to lend a helping hand", he concluded.
Other leaders of the PSOE, on the other hand, say that they preferred not to see González or Guerra in these campaigns: "He doesn't have to. They are the only ones left."
González and Guerra will be able to return to the charge, however, on the occasion of the presentation on September 20 at the Ateneo de Madrid of the last book of the former vice-president of the Spanish Government, where both will coincide again.
In Moncloa and the leadership of the PSOE, in any case, avoid direct confrontation with González and Guerra: "We will not answer them", they admit. In order not to feed the controversy and, above all, not to divert the focus from Feijóo, who is now the one tasked by the King to face his investiture, and his claim to find a fit in Catalonia, they say, that it was "unable to explain", which the PP had to clarify immediately.
Minister Félix Bolaños, after hearing González's new "warning" - a classic he maintains with all his successors in the party -, defended that what the PSOE is doing "is absolutely consistent with the best socialist tradition". And Minister María Jesús Montero, deputy general secretary of the PSOE, limited herself yesterday to showing her "affection and respect" for Guerra, after her attack against an eventual amnesty.
The leadership of the PSOE insists on considering the "personal opinions" of González and Guerra, who warn that they are only representing themselves, while they "discount" the critical position on the president of Castile-La Mancha, Emiliano García- Page, or that of the former president of Aragon, and still leader of the Aragonese socialists, Javier Lambán. All, therefore, would be isolated voices, and would not respond to widespread unrest in the PSOE, as happened in the last legislature, with the effects of the only yes is yes law or with the reform of the crime of embezzlement, which did go generate internal controversy.
Several leaders highlight the closing ranks of the leader of the Andalusian socialists, Juan Espadas, during the rally he led with Pedro Sánchez in Malaga on Saturday. Espadas encouraged Sánchez to reach an agreement for the governability of a "diverse and non-uniform" Spain, and communicated the support of the Andalusian PSOE for its "position of negotiation, dialogue, coexistence and agreements" in Catalonia.
"This does not mean weakness or that we agree with the approaches of the pro-independence parties, but that we love our country and want to build agreements for governability through dialogue", stressed the leader of the Andalusian socialists. Although he already warned that the right will collar them and put "pressure on the pot" to try to derail any agreement. "Cold head and common sense to try to reach an agreement", he confided. Because, in line with Sánchez's purpose, "our dialogue and ability to agree have a border: the Constitution".
Yesterday, Espadas defended the legitimacy of some veteran socialists, with reference to González and Guerra, to express their opinions as they see fit. But he warned that, at this political moment, what they should do is demand that he explain what his territorial model is for Spain and what relationship he wants to maintain with Catalonia.
