The echoes of the tension between we can and addafter the act of Yolanda Diaz last Saturday, they also arrive until the PSOE. At the gates of important regional and municipal elections, the main message conveyed from Moncloa and Ferraz is that the drive to your left should be as wide as possible. Beyond that objective, the Socialists are trying to isolate themselves during these days from all the accusations between their government partners. And in this sense they trust that the consequence of all this dispute will lead to a broad mobilization of the progressive electorate.
In the environment of the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, these days they handle a thesis: “that there is movement in the progressive space is positive”. In other words, Díaz’s project can generate an “awakening” and a “reactivation” of the electorate necessary to reissue some coalition governments, also in May, which will be played in many territories for a handful of votes. The division, yes, could put at risk the necessary majorities due to the particularities of the electoral system as they affect the socialist ranks.
The practical application on May 28 to the differences between Sumar and Podemos would really only occur in two territories. Very important, yes, although with different electoral expectations. They are the Valencian Country and Madrid. In the first of them, commitmentwho was at the Díaz act, is electorally facing the coalition of Podem and Esquerra Unida, confirmed precisely this week.
A paradox that also occurs in Madrid, where More Madrid, who supported Díaz, is electorally facing United We Can. For the rest, the general trend is that the space to the left of the PSOE is united. Its results could be decisive in places like Extremadura, Navarra, La Rioja, Illes Balears or Aragón, among others. It remains to be seen what role Díaz will play in the May electoral process.
In Moncloa the order has been given not to speak, or speak little, of what is happening to their left. The objective is to focus on the achievements of the coalition government. And also to confront the PP and especially its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. This strategy was clearly visible last Tuesday, at the usual press conference held after the Council of Ministers.
the spokeswoman isabella rodriguez he dodged questions referring to the internal situation of his government partners up to five times. “Nerves are in the PP,” Rodríguez highlighted when asked about an alleged concern in the socialist wing due to these tensions.
In the federal leadership of the PSOE they are emphatic in this regard. “We want the space to our left to be as wide as possible, and we are not entering into a process that is yours, and to which we owe respect“, sentence official sources to Public.
The “two leagues” and the transfer of voters
A few months ago in the PSOE they recognized that their electorate, and also the one located furthest to their left, was not yet activated for the electoral processes. This was reflected in the polls and this was felt in the environment. A situation that is already buried. “The progressive space has woken up,” they insist. For both May and December, the Socialists see “two leagues” at the electoral level. That is to say, a fight for first and second place between PP and PSOE. And a fight for third and fourth place between the ultra-right of Vox and the space that United We Can represent.
Several media, after a survey published by the company GAD3, have published these days that there is concern in the PSOE about a strong transfer of socialist voters to Sumar. about this there is different visions inside the party. Some voices consider that the second vice president can get to collect votes from a space where the PSOE probably cannot reach. Others believe that if she wants a more “focused” space or of a more social democratic nature, she can assume that transfer.
A year ago, the book the red lady, written by the journalists Manuel Sánchez and Alexis Romero, argued in one of its conclusions that the Socialists have a “broken heart” (like the famous song by Alejandro Sanz) with the vice president. In the leadership of the PSOE, according to the book, they breathed with some relief after the departure of Pablo Iglesias and Díaz’s entry as a reference for UP.
In the mentioned book, some socialist voices warn of the possibility that Díaz will win votes in the usual electorate of the PSOE. “I would not trust Sánchez,” highlights one of the socialist sources consulted in the publication. The narrative in the book agrees that for Sánchez continues to govern after the 2023 elections“the key is in Yolanda”.
It is no secret that the personal harmony between Sánchez and Díaz is high. This has been demonstrated on many occasions. The last one, with the coordinated staging of the motion of no confidence presented by Vox and Ramón Tamames. The socialists are in favor of the vice president acting as the true leader of the space to her left.
This, not to take Podemos out of the equation, aware that the maximum breadth of the electorate is important and that without the purple force the results could be worse, but so that the strategy is more cohesive within the coalition. In fact, authoritative voices such as that of the PSOE parliamentary spokesman, Patxi López, called on Díaz to be more proactive in the context of the reform of the law on only yes is yes. In Moncloa, in any case, they resign themselves to the fact that they cannot directly interfere in space. “They have to understand each other,” they insist.
